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Bequest  of 

Frederic  Bancroft 

1860-1945 


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producers  of 
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The  embattled  farmers  at  Lexington,  the  men  who  ah-eady 
had  arms,  who  seized  them  and  came  forth  in  order  to  assert 
the  independence  and  pohtical  freedom  of  themselves  and  their 
neighbors.     That  is  the  ideal  picture  of  America— the  rising  of 

a  nation. 

WOODROW  WILSON,  January  29,  1916, 


This  is  the  Second  Edition  of  this  book 

revised  and  condensed 

1917 


IKSCRIBE'D 

TO  THE 

MEMORY  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS 

The  memory  of  our  fathers  should  be  the  watchword  of 
hberty  throughout  the  land;  for,  imperfect  as  they  were,  the 
world  before  had  not  seen  their  like,  nor  will  it  soon,  we  fear, 
behold  their  like  again.  Such  models  of  moral  excellence,  such 
apostles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  such  shades  of  the  illustrious 
dead  looking  down  upon  their  descendants  with  approbation  or 
reproof,  according  as  they  follow  or  depart  from  the  good  way, 
constitute  a  censorship  inferior  only  to  the  eye  of  God;  and  to 
ridicule  them  is  national  suicide. — Beecher. 


MEMORIAL 


of 


CAPTAIN  THOMAS  ABBEY 


His  Ancestors  and  Descendants  of 


THE   ABBEY   FAMILY 

PATHFINDERS,  SOLDIERS  AND  PIONEER  SETTLERS 

OF  CONNECTICUT,    ITS  WESTERN   RESERVE 

IN  OHIO   AND  THE  GREAT  WEST. 


Inscription  and  Seal  at  the  Base  of  the  Pedestal  of  the  Statue. 

7 


ERECTED   BY  HIS  GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER 

FRANCES  MARIA  ABBEY 

WIFE  OF 

JOEL   FRANCIS  FREEMAN 

1836-1910 


Her  sons : 
ALDEN  FREEMAN. 

Member  of  tlie  Society  of  tlic  Cincinnati  in  the  State  of  Connecticut. 

FRANCIS  AUSTIN  FREEMAN, 
1869-1889. 

Her  daughters : 

EDITH  FREEMAN  DALLETT, 

1871-1914. 

GERTRUDE  ABBEY  FREEMAN, 

and  tlie  granddaughter, 

FRANCES  DALLETT  KISSEL. 

Names  of   the  donors  on  3  sides  of  the   Base  of  the  Pedestal. 


V 


in 


05 
I 

o 

UJ 

o 


The  Spirit  of  1775  Expressed  in  Sculpture 

By  Sherry  Edmundson  Fry,  the  Sculptor 


THOMAS  ABBEY 

Born  April  ii,  1731.  Died  June  3,  1811. 

A  SOLDIER  IN  THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WARS. 
TOOK  PART  IN  THE  CAPTURE  OF  FORT  TICONDE- 
ROGA,  1758,  AND  THE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA,  1761. 
CORPORAL  FIRST  REgTmENT,  CONNECTICUT 
TROOPS,  MAY  25  TO  NOVEMBER  22,  1758.  LIEUTEN- 
ANT IN  CAPTAIN  SETH  KING'S  COMPANY,  APRIL  1 
TO  DECEMBER  1,  1761. 

ACCORDING  TO  TRADITION,  AT  THE  LEXINGTON 
ALARM  IN  APRIL,  1775,  DRUMMED  THE  CONGREGA- 
TION OUT  OF  THE  MEETING  HOUSE,  WHICH  STOOD 
ON  THIS  SPOT.  MARCHED  TO  THE  RELIEF  OF 
BOSTON  WITH  THE  ENFIELD  COMPANY,  LED  BY 
MAJOR  NATHANIEL  TERRY  AND  CAPTAIN  JOHN 
SIMONS,  JR.  LIEUTENANT  IN  CAPTAIN  HEZEKIAH 
PARSON'S  COMPANY,  1775. 

MAY  9,  1776,  APPOINTED  BY  THE  GENERAL  AS- 
SEMBLY OF  CONNECTICUT  FIRST  LIEUTENANT  IN 
CAPTAIN  ABEL  PEASE'S  COMPANY.  SERVED  UNDER 
GENERAL  GATES  AT  TICONDEROGA  AND  VICINITY, 
JUNE  TO  NOVEMBER,  1776.  ADJUTANT  CHESTER'S 
CONNECTICUT  STATE  REGIMENT.  JUNE  TO  DECEM- 
BER, 1776.  COMMISSIONED  CAPTAIN  JANUARY  1, 
1777.  APPOINTED  BY  THE  COUNCIL  OF  SAFETY, 
FEBRUARY  1,  1777,  TO  COLONEL  SAMUEL  WYLLYS'S 
REGIMENT  IN  NEW  YORK.  HELD  THIS  COM^IAND 
UNTIL  NOVEMBER  15,  1778. 

THE  MEETING  HOUSE  WHICH  STOOD  HERE  IS 
NOW  THE  TOWN  HALL.  IT  WAS  BUILT  IN  1775  BY 
ISAAC  KIBBE  AND  SUCCEEDED  THE  CHURCH  WHICH 
STOOD  ON  THE  GREEN  ONE-THIRD  MILE  TO  THE 
SOUTH.  THERE,  lULY  8,  1741,  JONATHAN  EDWARDS 
PREACHED  THE  "famous  SERMON,  "SINNERS  IN 
THE  HANDS  OF  AN  ANGRY  GOD." 

Inscription    on    the    Face    of   the    Pedestal 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  1775  EXPRESSED  IN   VERSE 

By  Benjamin  Franklin  Taylor,  the  Poet 


THE  CAPTAIN'S  DRUM 

A  Tradition  of  Enfield,  April  20,  1 775 


In  Pilgrim  land  one  Sabbath  day 
The  winter  lay  like  sheep  about 

The  ragged  pastures  mullein  gray; 
The  April  sun  shone  in  and  out, 

The  showers  swept  by  in  fitful  flocks, 

And  eaves  ticked  fast  like  mantel  clocks. 

II 

And  now  and  then  a  wealthy  cloud 

Would  wear  a  ribbon  broad  and  bright, 

And  now  and  then  a  winged  crowd 
Of  shining  azure  flash  in  sight; 

So  rainbows  bend  and  blue-birds  fly 

And  violets  show  their  bits  of  sky. 

Ill 

To  Enfield  church  throng  all  the  town 

In  quilted  hood  and  bombazine. 
In  beaver  hat  with  flaring  crown 

And  quaint  vandyke  and  victorine, 
.\nd  buttoned  boys  in  roundabout 
From  calyx  collars  blossom  out. 

IV 

Bandanas  wave  their  feeble  fire 
And  footstoves  tinkle  up  the  aisle, 

A  gray-haired  Elder  leads  the  choir 
And  girls  in  linsey-woolsey  smile. 

So  back  to  life  the  beings  glide 

Whose  very  graves  have  ebbed  and  died. 


V 

One  hundred  years  have  waned,  and  yet 
We  call  the  roll,  and  not  in  vain. 

For  one  whose  flint-lock  musket  set 

The  echoes  wild  round  Fort  Duquesne, 

And  swelled  the  battle's  powder  smoke 

Ere   Revolution's  thunders   woke. 

SOUTH  SIDE  OF  PEDESTAL. 
13 


VI 

Lo,  Thomas  Abbey  answers  "Here!" 
Within  the  duU'long-metre  place; 

That  day  upon  the  parson's  ear 

And  trampHng  down  his  words  of  grace 

A  horseman's  gallop  rudely  beat 

Along  the  splashed  and  empty  street. 


VII 
The  rider  drew  his  dripping  rein 

And  then  a  letter  wasp-nest  gray 
That  ran:    "The  Concord  Minute-Men 

And  Red-Coats  had  a  fight  to-day. 
To  Captain  Abbey  this  with  speed." 
Ten  little  words  to  tell  the  deed. 


VIII 

The  Captain  read,  struck  out  for  home 
The  old  quickstep  of  battle  born. 

Slung  on  once  more  a  battered  drum 
That  bore  a  painted  unicorn, 

Then  right-about  as  whirls  a  torch 

He  stood  before  the  sacred  porch; — 


IX 

And  then  a  murmuring  of  bees 

Broke  in  upon  the  house  of  prayer, 

And  then  a  wind-song  swept  the  trees, 
And  then  a  snarl  from  wolfish  lair, 

And  then  a  charge  of  grenadiers, 

And  then  a  flight  of  drum-beat  cheers. 


X 

So  drum  and  doctrine  rudely  blent. 

The  casements  rattled  strange  accord, 
No  mortal  knew  what  either  meant, 
'Twas  double-drag  and  Holy  Word. 

Thus  saith  the  drum  and  thus  the  Lord. 
The  Captain  raised  so  wild  a  rout 
He  drummed  the  congregation  out! 

EAST  SIDK  OF  PEDESTAL. 

14 


XI 

The  people  gathered  round  amazed, 
The  soldier  bared  his  head  and  spoke, 

And  every  sentence  burned  and  blazed 
As  trenchant  as  a  sabre-stroke : 

"  'Tis  time  to  pick  the  flint  to-day, 

To  sling  the  knapsack  and  away — 


XII 

''The  Green  of  Lexington  is  red 

With  British  Red-Coats,  brothers'  blood ! 
In  rightful  catise  the  earliest  dead 

Ave  always  best  beloved  of  God. 
Mark  time  !     X"ow  let  the  march  begin ! 
All  bound  for  Boston,  fall  right  in !" 


XIII 

Then  rub-a-dub  the  drum  jarred  on, 
The  throbbing  roll  of  battle  beat ! 

"Fall  in,  my  men !"  and  one  by  one. 

They  rhymed  the  tune  with  heart  and  feet 

And  so  they  made  a  Sabbath  march 

To  glory  'neath  the  elm-tree  arch. 


XIV 

The  Continental  line  unwoinid 

Along  the  church-yard's  breathless  sod, 
And  holier  grew  the  hallowed  ground 

Where  A'irtue  slept  and  Valor  trod. 
Two  hundred  strong  that  April  day 
Thev  rallied  out  and  marched  awav. 


XV 

Brigaded  there  at  Bunker  Hill 

Their  names  are  writ  on  Glory's  page, 
The  brave  old  Captain's  Sunday  drill 

Has  drimimed  its  way  across  the  Age. 

Benjamin  Frankun  Taylor. 
Enfield,  April,  1875.  1819-1887. 

NORTH  SIDE  OF  PEDESTAL. 
15 


It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  Connecticut,  in  proportion 
to  population,  furnished  more  soldiers  in  the  Revolution  than 
any  other  of  the  thirteen  colonies.  This  was  disclosed  through 
the  investigations  of  an  Enfield  man  who  was,  in  his  day,  an 
encyclopaedia  of  knowledge.  This  was  Dr.  John  Chauncey  Pease, 
1782-1859,  who  assisted  Royal  R.  Hinman  in  preparing  the  well- 
known  volume,  "Historical  Collections  of  Connecticut  in  the 
American  Revolution." 


THE  CAPTAIN'S  DRUM 

"A  battered  drum  that  bore  a  painted  unicorn." 

There  was  nothing  irreverent  in  Thomas  Abbey's  summoning 
the  people  from  church  by  beating  a  drum.  His  news  was  vital 
and  demanded  immediate  action.  It  was  the  decisive  moment  in 
our  Revolution,  atid  he  used  the  usual  and  accepted  method  of 
assembling  the  people  in  that  early  day.  Throughout  New 
England  at  that  period  congregations  were  called  to  church  ser- 
vice by  tlic  beating  of  a  drum  through  the  town. 


16 


THE  TOWN  HALL  OF  ENFIELD 

From  1775  to  1848  this  building  was  the  fleeting  House, 
and  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  Green.  It  was  the  scene  of  the 
episode  commemorated  by  the  statue  of  Captain  Abbey,  and  was 
the  third  building  in  which  the  Enfield  congregation  has  wor- 
shipped. 


The  Abbey  Memorial  stands  close  to  the  spot  where  this  ven- 
erable structure  was  originally  erected  and  where  it  stood  for  7Z 
years  as  a  house  of  worship.  The  Town  Meeting  is  justly 
regarded  as  the  cradle  of  American  Independence,  and  this  build- 
ing, by  reason  of  its  traditions,  both  as  a  place  of  worship,  where 
three  generations  of  the  people  of  Enfield  were  baptized,  married 
and  their  funerals  held,  and  also  as  the  Town  Hall,  where  three 
later  generations  have  fulfilled  their  political  duties  as  free  Amer- 
ican citizens,  deserves,  for  all  future  time,  to  be  cherished  with 
afl:'ection  and  with  pride  by  a  religious  and  liberty-loving  people. 

17 


ENFIELD    CHURCH    AND   THE  ABBEY    MEMORIAL 


ENFIELD   CHURCH 

This  church  is  looked  upon  by  architects  as  one  of  the  finest 
examples  of  the  Colonial  style  in  New  England.  It  reminds  the 
traveller  of  those  beautiful  parish  churches  in  London,  England, 
the  spires  of  which  Sir  Christopher  Wren  set  like  candlesticks 
around  his  masterpiece,  St.  Paul's  Cathedral. 

The  first  house  of  worship  in  Enfield  was  built  of  logs  in 
1684,  and  stood  in  or  close  to  the  cemetery.  The  second  church 
edifice  was  built  in  1706.  The  outlines  of  its  foundation,  about 
forty  feet  square,  may  be  seen  opposite  the  post-of^ce.  Rachel 
Kibbe,  1688-1786.  who  married  first  Jonathan  Bush,  1681-1746, 
and  secondly  Lieutenant  John  Meacham,  remembered  the  raising 
of  this  second  meeting  house  when  she  was  eighteen  years  old, 
and  said  there  was  "a  great  frolick  which  lasted  three  days."  She 
was  the  grandmother  of  Hannah  Bush,  1744-1801.  wife  of  Colonel 
Amos  Alden,  and  died  in  her  100th  year. 

JONATHAN  EDWARDS'S  FAMOUS  ENFIELD  SERMON. 

The  second  church  building  has  an  honorable  place  in  the 
religious  history  of  America.  It  was  there,  on  July  8,  1741,  that 
Jonathan  Edwards  preached  his  famous  Enfield  sermon,  "Sinners 
in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry  God."  This  sermon  was  the  high-tide 
in  a  revival  known  as  "The  Great  Awakening,"  commenced  in 
his  own  church  at  Northampton,  Mass.,  which  swept  over  the 
whole  of  New  England.  The  great  preacher  was  born  in  East 
Windsor,  about  nine  miles  from  Enfield  Church,  on  October  5, 
1703,  in  the  house  which  his  grandfather,  Richard  Edwards,  of 
Hartford,  built  for  his  father,  Rev.  Timothy  Edwards.  An 
invitation  to  the  "Ordination  Ball"  given  in  this  house  in  May, 
1698,  is  still  in  existence,  signed  by  Rev.  Timothy  Edwards. 
This  dance  at  the  parson's  in  East  Windsor  and  the  "3  days' 
frolick"  at  the  church-raising  in  Enfield  eight  years  later,  are 
pretty  reliable  evidence  that  our  forefathers  were  not  so  straight- 
laced,  so  dour  and  solemn  as  we  have  been  led  to  believe.  They 
were  perhaps  more  broad-minded  and  liberal  than  some  of  their 
descendants  who  frown  on  innocent  amusements  and  the  joys  of 
youth  and  gayety. 

Beside  being  President  of  Princeton  College  and  the  fore- 
most man  that  Connecticut  has  produced.  Jonathan  Edwards  is 
generally  regarded  as  the  ablest  metaphysician  of  the  period  be- 
tween Leibnitz  and  Kant  and  as  the  greatest  theologian  of  the 
18th  century.     A  believer  in  etiualitv,  in  the  oneness  of  mankind. 


19 


0--V  n  a.  f^a  a 


Cycirvar^  J 


PORTRAIT   AND  AUTOGRAPH   OF  JONATHAN   EDWARDS 

in  freedom  of  inquiry,  and  a  lover  of  liberty,  he  was  an  abso- 
lute democrat  and  a  forerunner  of  the  Revolution.  It  has  been 
said  if  you  would  know  the  workings  of  the  mind  of  New  Eng- 
land in  the  middle  of  the  18th  century  and  the  throbbing  of  its 
heart  you  must  study  the  life  and  the  words  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 


THE  WOLCOTT  FAMILY. 
In  the  congregation  of  Timothy  Edwards  the  most  prominent 
man  was  Roger  Wolcott,  who  in  1750  became  Governor  of  Con- 
necticut. His  son,  Oliver  Wolcott,  was  a  signer  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  as  well  as  Governor  of  Connecticut,  while 
his  grandson,  Oliver  Wolcott,  succeeded  Alexander  Hamilton  as 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  was  also  Governor  of  Connecticut. 
Other  descendants  are  Governor  Robert  \\'olcott  oi  iMassachu- 
setts  and  the  Wadsworth  family  of  Geneseo,  N.  Y..  and  in  Wol- 
cott Keep  of  Lockport,  N.  Y.,  the  Wolcott  blood  is  united  with 
that  of  Captain  Abbey  of  Enfield. 

20 


ERECTION  OF  THE  TOWN  HALL. 

The  third  meeting  house  was  built  by  Isaac  Kibbe,  1731- 
1779.  He  was  the  only  son  of  Isaac  Kibbe,  1683-1766,  who  was 
the  first  boy  born  in  Enfield  and  the  youngest  brother  of  Rachel 
Kibbe,  who  left  the  record  of  the  "frolick"  at  the  raising  of  the 
previous  church  in  1706.  Mr.  Kibbe  executed  a  bond  that  the 
new  church  should  be  "of  the  same  dimensions  and  in  every 
respect  equal  in  size,  quality  and  goodness  to  the  meeting  house 
in  East  Windsor."  That  building  has  been  biu'ned  since,  but  its 
dimensions,  60  by  45  feet  and  27  feet  high,  are  preserved  in  the 
copy,  except  that  the  pillared  porch  was  added  in  1848,  when 
the  church  was  moved  ofif  the  Enfield  Green  and  converted  into 
the  present  town  hall. 

It  was  completed  according  to  contract  on  January  1,  1775, 
and  at  the  Lexington  Alarm  in  the  following  April  became  the 
scene  of  Captain  Abbey's  drum-beating  exploit.  At  the  meeting 
of  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  of  Enfield,  on  January  16,  1775, 
it  was  voted  to  pay  to  Isaac  Kibbe  sixty  pounds  extra  above  his 
contract  and  also  the  old  meeting  house,  for  the  reason  that  he 
had  built  the  new  church  "better  than  bargain."  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  Mr.  Kibbe's  contract  was  for  £1,100.  and  that  it 
was  paid  in  beef,  pork,  grain  and  tobacco.  In  this  payment  in 
kind  wheat  was  rated  at  4  shillings  (one  dollar)  per  bushel,  rye 
at  3  shillings   {7S  cents).  Indian  corn  at  2  shillings   (50  cents), 


THE  BIRTHPLACE  OF  JONATHAN  EDWARDS. 

"A  very  expensive  house,  decorated  with  many  elegant  ornaments, 
it  took  a  year  to  build,  was  completed  about  January  1.  1697,  and  stood 
until  1813."— Stile's  "Ancient  Windsor." 


21 


beef  at  2  pence  (4  cents j,  pork  at  3  pence  (6  cents),  and  tobacco 
at  18  shillings  ($4.50)  per  hundred  pounds  if  raised  by  the  hand 
that  presented  it  for  his  rate  or  on  his  own  land.  In  case  of 
delay  in  payments  the  sums  due  were  to  be  at  interest  till  paid, 
and  money  was  always  to  be  accepted  instead  of  the  produce 
named  if  any  person  desired.  The  figures  show  that  in  150  years 
grain  has  not  advanced  in  price,  while  meat  costs  several  times 
as  much  to-day.  These  payments  in  kind  for  the  building  of  the 
meeting  house  furnish  a  good  picture  of  the  simple  agricultural 
life  of  our  forefathers.  What  a  mistake  for  the  immigrants  of 
to-day  to  herd  in  great  cities  instead  of  going  into  the  country 
and  cultivating  the  soil  like  the  early  settlers. 


OLD  CONCORD.* 

I  came  to  Concord  in  the  evening.    Care, 
And  strutting  Pride,  and  painted  Folly,  these 
Were  all  forgotten  with  the  solemn  trees. 
The  clean,  white  walls  of  Concord.    Everywhere 
Were  wedded  peace  and  order.    Yet  what  blare 
Of  breathless  bugles  on  the  sparkling  breeze ! 
What  scarlet  foe  that  battles  and  that  flees ! 
What  beckonings  and  what  voices  haunt  the  air! 

For  it  was  spring  in  Concord,  and  the  sight 
Brought  back  the  glories  of  that  deathless  year, 
The  mufl:led  tread  of  armies  in  the  night. 
The  ghostly  hoofs,  the  shouts,  and  Paul  Revere, 
The  Old  North  Bridge,  the  men  who  did  not  fear 
To  die  for  home  and  liberty  and  right. 

Earl  Simoxson. 

Concord,  Mass.,  May  9,  1916. 


*  Read  Enfield  in  place  of  Concord  throughout  this  poem  and  the  application 
will  prove  equally  true.  It  was  another  Paul  Revere,  unknown  to  fame,  who  carried 
the   alarm   to   Enfield.      The  poem   originally  appeared   in   the   New   York   Tribune. 

22 


Nothing  is  more  ivholcsome  than  for  a  people  to  be  reminded 
of  a  noble  ancestry  and  of  their  illustrious  deeds. — George  Will- 
iam Curtis,  April,  1875. 


The  Story  of  a  Town  Told  in  the 
History  of  a  Family 


Our  country  is  the  history  of  our  fathers — our  country  is 
the  tradition  of  our  mothers — our  country  is  past  renown — our 
country  is  present  pride  and  power — our  country  is  future  hope 
and  destiny — our  country  is  greatness,  glory,  truth,  constitutional 
liberty — above  all,  freedom  forever ! 

U.  S.  Senator  Edtvard  D.  Baker,  in  Union  Square,  Nezv 
York,  April  20,  186 1,  six  days  after  the  evacuation  of  Fort 
Sumter.  He  raised  the  "California"  regiment  in  Nezv  York  and 
Philadelphia  and  died  at  the  head  of  his  brigade  at  Ball's  Bluff, 
October  21,  1861. 

23 


THE  IMMIGRANT 
ANCESTOR 
AND  THE 

WINDHAM  ABBES 


JOHN   ABBEY,   1612-1690 

SAILED  FROM  LONDON,  ENGLAND,  IN  THE  ''BON- 
AVENTURE"  JANUARY  2,  1634.  EARLY  SETTLER  OF 
WENHAM.  MASSACHUSETTS.  SONS  JOHN  AND 
SAMUEL  SETTLED  IN  WINDHAM,  CONNECTICUT, 
1696-7.  THE  WINDHAM  ABBES  INCLUDE  RICHARD. 
1682-1737,  LEGISLATOR;  TOSHUA,  1710-1807,  PHILAN- 
THROPIST; SHUBAEL,  1744-1804,  LEGISLATOR;  HENRY 
ABBEY,  1842-1911,  POET;  EDWIN  AUSTIN  ABBEY, 
1852-1911.  PAINTER;  AND  THE  BROTHERS  ROBERT 
ABBE,  1850,  SURGEON,  AND  CLEVELAND  ABBE,  1838- 
1916,  ASTRONOMER  AND  METEOROLOGIST. 


SEALS  AND 

INSCRIPTION   ON 

FIRST   HALF  OF 

NORTHEAST  SEAT 


24 


CAPTAIN  ABBEY'S 
GRANDFATHER 


THOMAS  ABBEY,  1656-1728 
SOLDIER  IN  KING  PHILIP'S  WAR  IN  CAPTAIN 
APPLETON-S  COMPANY.  WOUNDED  AT  THE  TAKING 
OF  THE  INDIAN  FORT  IN  THE  GREAT  SWAMP  FIGHT 
AT  NARRAGANSETT,  RHODE  ISLAND,  DECEMBER  19, 
1675.  ONE  OF  THE  FIRST  SETTLERS  OF  ENFIELD, 
1683.  MARRIED  DECEMBER  17. 1683,  SARAH  FAIRFIELD, 
DAUGHTER  OF  WALTER  FAIRFIELD,  REPRESENTA- 
TIVE OF  WENHAM  IN  THE  GENERAL  COURT  OF 
MASSACHUSETS,  1689.  GRANDDAUGHTER  OF  JOHN 
FAIRFIELD,  AN  ORIGINAL  PROPRIETOR  OF  WEN- 
HA^I. 


SEALS  AND 

INSCRIPTION  ON 

SECOND   HALF    OF 

NORTHEAST    SEAT 


25 


CAPTAIN  ABBEY'S 
FATHER 


LIEUTENANT  THOMAS  ABBEY,  1686-1759 

SERGEANT.  1711.  LIEUTENANT,  1712-13.  MAR- 
RIED AIARCH  13,  1715,  MARY  PEASE,  DAL'GHTER  OF 
CAPTAIN  JOHN  PEASE,  FOUNDER  OF  ENFIELD, 
FATHER  OF  FIRST  CHILD  BORN  HERE.  1683.  SHE 
WAS  GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER  OF  ROBERT  PEASE 
OF  THE  'TRANCIS,"  1634;  ROBERT  GOODELL  OF  THE 
"ELIZABETH,"  1634;  TOHN  ADAMS  OF  THE  "FOR- 
TUNE," 1621,  AND  OF  WILLIAM  VASSALL  OF  THE 
"ARABELLA,"  1630.  WHOSE  FATHER,  JOHN  VASSALL, 
WAS  COMMANDER  OF  TWO  SHIPS  AGAINST  THE 
SPANISH  ARMADA,  1588.  AND  MEMBER  OF  THE  VIR- 
GINIA COMPANY  WHICH  FOUNDED  lAMESTOWN, 
1607. 


SEALS  AND 

INSCRIPTION  ON 

FIRST  HALF  OF 

SOUTHEAST  SEAT 


26 


CAPTAIN  ABBEY'S 
WIFE 


CAPTAIN  THOMAS  ABBEY,  173M811 

MARRIED  JUNE  22,  1749,  PEXELOPE  TERRY, 
DAUGHTER  OF  DR.  EBENEZER  TERRY.  EARLIEST 
xYATIVE  PHYSICIAN  OF  THIS  TOWN.  GRANDDAUGH- 
TER OF  CAPTAIN  SAMUEL  TERRY,  PIONEER  SET- 
TLER, WHOSE  FATHER,  SERGEANT  SA^IUEL  TERRY, 
CAME  FROM  BARNET,  ENGLAND,  AS  APPRENTICE 
TO  WILLIAM  PYNCHON,  FOUNDER  OF  SPRINGFIELD. 
THE  FIRST  MARRIAGE  IN  ENFIELD  WAS  THAT  OF 
CAPTAIN  SAMUEL  TERRY,  MAY  17,  1682.  TO  HANNAH 
MORGAN,  DAUGHTER  OF  CAPTAIN  MILES  MORGAN, 
DEFENDER  OF  SPRINGFIELD  AGAINST  THE  INDIANS, 
OCTOBER  5.  1675. 


SEALS  AND 
INSCRIPTION  ON 
SECOND   HALF    OF 
SOUTHEAST  SEAT 


27 


CAPTAIN 

ABBEY'S 

SON 


PETER  ABBEY,  1769-1857 
MARRIED  JUNE  22,  1789,  HANNAH  ALDEN, 
DAUGHTER  OF  COLONEL  AMOS  ALDEN.  SHE  WAS  A 
DESCENDANT  OF  JOHN  ALDEN,  OF  THE  "MAYFLOW- 
ER," 1620;  JOHN  BUSH  OF  THE  "ALENANDER,"  1634; 
EDWARD  KIBBE  OF  BOSTON,  1645,  AND  OF  WILLIAM 
HARAEY.  ENGLISH  ENVOY  DURING  FOUR  TUDOR 
REIGNS  TO  EMPEROR  CHARLES  V..  DENMARK.  SAX- 
ONY AND  FRANCE.  AND  SENT  TO  DECLARE  WAR 
AGAINST  FRANCE,  JUNE  7,  1557. 


SEAL  AND 

INSCRIPTION   ON 

FIRST  SECTION  OF 

SOUTHWEST  SEAT 


CAPTAIN 

ABBEY'S 

GRANDSON 


LIEUT.  SETH  ALDEN  ABBEY,  U.S.A.,  17984  880 

MARRIED  FEBRUARY  8,  1821,  MERCY  HUNT. 
PRINTER,  EDITOR,  CONSTABLE,  MARSHAL,  SHERIFF 
AND  MUNICIPAL  JUDGE  OF  CLEVELAND,  OHIO.  EN- 
LISTED 1861,  AT  AGE  OF  63.  FIRST  LIEUTENANT 
SECOND  OHIO  CAVALRY.  SERVED  THREE  YEARS  IN 
THE  CIVIL  WAR. 


SEAL  AND 
INSCRIPTION   ON 

THE   MIDDLE 

SECTION  OF  THE 

SOUTHWEST   SEAT 


SETH  ALDEN  ABBEY,  1798-1880 

Judge  Abbey  left  a  manuscript,  dated  June  15,  1872,  in  which 
he  gives  his  recollections  of  his  grandfather.  Captain  Abbey,  as 
follows : 

"When  a  small  boy  I  was  frequently  at  his  house  for  a  week 
at  a  time,  and  have  heard  him  tell  many  a  thrilling  tale  of  his 
hairbreadth  escapes,  hardships,  sufferings,  etc.,  in  service  against 
the  French  and  Indians.  At  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolution 
a  volunteer  company  was  raised  in  his  neighborhood,  and  he  was 
elected  their  captain.  I  have  heard  him  say,  frequently,  that  h« 
had  chances  of  promotion,  often,  but  his  men  would  not  consent 
to  his  leaving  them.  I  saw  many  of  his  old  soldiers  who  served 
during  the  war ;  and  the  neighbors  were  as  particular  when  ad- 
dressing any  of  them,  in  giving  them  their  title,  as  Corporal  such 
a  one  or  Sergeant  such  a  one,  as  they  would  be  in  addressing  a 
general.  Thomas  Abbey  died  in  1811,  and  was  as  anxious  for  a 
fight  again  with  old  England,  which  was  then  much  talked  of, 
just  before  his  death,  as  in  his  younger  days." 

\A'hen,  during  the  Civil  War,  Judge  Abbey  was  offered  pro- 
motion by  David  Tod,  the  war  Governor  of  Ohio,  like  his  grand- 
father, he  declined,  characteristically  remarking  to  his  friends 
that  he  thought  he  was  doing  more  eft'ective  work  where  then 
situated. 

AMERICANIZE  THE  IMMIGRANT,  SAYS 
THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

[.Address   before  the    National   Americanization   Committee, 

February   1,   1916.] 

Let  us  say  to  the  immigrant  not  that  we  hope  he  will  learn 
English,  but  that  he  has  got  to  learn  it.  Let  the  immigrant  who 
does  not  learn  it  go  back.  He  has  got  to  consider  the  interest 
of  the  United  States  or  he  should  not  stay  here.  He  must  be 
made  to  see  that  his  opportimities  in  this  country  depend  upon 
his  knowing  English  and  observing  American  standards.  The 
employer  cannot  be  permitted  to  regard  him  onlv  as  an  industrial 
asset. 

\\'e  must  in  every  way  possible  encourage  the  immigrant  to 
rise,  help  him  up,  give  him  a  chance  to  hel])  himself.  If  we  try 
to  carry  him  he  may  well  prove  not  worth  carrying.  We  must 
in  turn  insist  upon  his  showing  the  same  standard  of  fealty  to 
this  country  and  to  join  with  us  in  raising  the  level  of  our  com- 
mon American  citizenship. 

30 


CAPTAIN  ABBEY'S  ELDEST  GRANDSON 
COLONEL  DORREPHUS  ABBEY,  17924  838 

(SETH   ALDEN   ABBEY'S  BROTHER) 

BORN  IN  SUFFIELD,  CONNECTICUT.  JULY  13,  1792. 
PRINTER  AND  EDITOR,  WATERTOWN,  NEW  YORK. 
LED  AN  EXPEDITION  INTO  CANADA  IN  THE  PA- 
TRIOT \\'AR,  1838.  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF  PRESCOTT, 
NOVEMBER  13-16,  WITH  COLONEL  VON  SHOULTZ 
AND  180  MEN,  HELD  THE  STONE  WINDMILL  FOR 
FOUR  DAYS  AGAINST  TWO  REGIMENTS  OF  BRITISH 
REGULARS,  THREE  ARMED  STEAMBOATS  AND  900 
VOLUNTEERS.  HANGED  BY  THE  BRITISH  IN  FORT 
HENRY  AT  KINGSTON.  DECEMBER  12,  1838. 


SEAL  AND  INSCRIPTION   ON   THIRD   SECTION  OF 

SOUTHWEST  SEAT 
In  selecting  subjects  for  these  seals  the  Tower  of  London 
was  chosen  to  typify  the  feudal  power  and  autocratic  sway  of 
Charles  I.  and  his  "right  divine  to  rule  awrong."  which  John 
Abbey  left  behind  him  when  he  sailed  away  from  the  British 
capital  on  the  second  day  of  January,  1634.  By  a  curious  coinci- 
dence, of  which  we  were  not  aware  when  making  this  selection 
but  which  certainly  confirmed  its  appropriateness,  the  flag  nailed 
to  the  summit  of  the  windmill  is  now  in  the  Tower  of  London, 
among  the  trophies  taken  on  many  a  bloody  field  of  battle.  The 
flag  was  presented  to  the  leaders  of  the  Patriot  \\'ar  by  the  ladies 
of  Onondaga  County,  New  York. 


31 


CAPTAIN 

ABBEY'S 

GREAT^ 

GRANDSON 


HENRY  GILBERT  ABBEY,  182M887 
CALIFORNIA,  1849.  MARRIED  SEPTEMBER  28, 
1859,  AMELIA  MATHILDA  JOHNSTONE.  AS  SOLE 
TRUSTEE  ESTABLISHED  IN  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE 
AT  CLEVELAND,  OHIO,  THE  CASE  SCHOOL  OF 
APPLIED  SCIENCE,  1880. 


SEAL  AND 
INSCRIPTION 

ON   FIRST 

SECTION  OF 

NORTHWEST  SEAT 


C 


^^ 


"> 


V 


,-  V- 


32 


ANOTHER 

GREAT' 

GRANDSON 

OF 

CAPTAIN 

ABBEY 


EDWIN   ALDEN   ABBEY,   1823-1893 

(  Henry  Gilbert  Abbey's  Brother  ) 

DISPATCH  RIDER  IN  THE  MEXICAN  WAR. 
CROSSED  THE  PLAINS  WITH  KIT  CARSON.  A  PIO- 
NEER SETTLER  OF  OREGON.  1851. 


SEAL  AND 

INSCRIPTION 

IN  FIRST  HALF  OF 

SECOND  SECTION 

OF 
NORTHWEST  SEAT 


33 


CAPTAIN 

ABBEY'S 

GREAT'GREAT 

GRANDSON 


HENRY   ABBEY,   1862 

MECHANICAL  ENGINEER,  STEVENS  INSTITUTE 
OF  TECHNOLOGY,  1885.  MARRIED  SEPTEMBER,  1886, 
REBECCA  CONNELLY.  SINCE  1906  IN  MENICO  CITY 
DURING  ALL  DISTURBANCES  THERE. 


SEAL   AND 
INSCRIPTION 

IN  SECOND 
HALF   OF    SECOND 

SECTION  OF 
NORTHWEST  SEAT 


34 


CAPTAIN 

ABBEY'S 

GREAT'GREAT' 

GREAT^ 

GRANDSON 


LIEUT.  HENRY   ABBEY,  Jr.,  U.  S.  A.,  1887 

MARRIED  MAY  5.  1914,  LUCRETIA  MILLER, 
DAUGHTER  OF  MAJOR  CHARLES  MILLER,  U.  S.  A. 
COMMANDED  ADVANCE  GUARD  TENTH  CAVALRY 
IN  MEXICO.  SUSTAINED  FIRST  VILLA  ATTACK  AT 
AGUASCALIENTES,  APRIL  1,  1916,  AND  WITH  30  MEN 
ROUTED  150  MEXICANS. 


SEAL  AND 
INSCRIPTION 

IN  THIRD 

SECTION   OF 

NORTHWEST  SEAT 


35 


^  vj- 


FACSIMILE  OF 

AUTOGRAPH 

OF  CAPTAIN 

THOMAS  ABBEY 


Explanation  of  the  Inscriptions   and 
Seals  on  the  Seats 

The  inscriptions  enumerate  the  immediate  ancestors  and  de- 
scendants of  Captain  Abbey,  from  the  first  immigrant  of  the  name 
down  to  the  present  day,  nine  generations  in  all.  Also  included 
are  the  names  of  the  best  known  members  of  the  family  who 
settled  in  Windham,  Connecticut.  On  the  seats  behind  the  statue 
are  inscriptions  which  describe  the  forebears  of  Captain  Abbey; 
while  the  statue  faces  inscriptions  telling  of  the  lives  of  five 
generations  of  his  descendants  down  to  the  year  1916. 
THE  SPELLING  OF  THE  NAME  ABBEY. 

Most  of  the  Windham  Abbes  cling  to  the  old  spelling  of  the 
name,  which  also  prevails  in  Enfield  today.  Captain  Abbey  him- 
self spelled  his  name  with  the  "y,"  as  is  proven  by  his  autograph 
reproduced  here  from  page  148  of  the  second  volume  of  Trum- 
bull's "History  of  Hartford  County,  Conn."  His  sons,  Thomas, 
Peter  and  Simeon  (grandfather  of  Westminster  Abbey  of  New 
York  ),  in  the  announcement  of  the  dissolution  of  their  partnership 
printed  in  the  Hartford  "Courant"  of  June  17,  1793,  spelled  the 
name  Abbey.  The  obituary  notice  of  Captain  Abbey's  widow  in 
the  "Courant"  of  January  18,  1818,  also  spells  the  name  Abbey. 
The  line  which  is  recorded  in  this  memorial  has  spelled  the  name 
Abbey  for  six  generations  consecutively,  which  seems  to  justify 
the  spelling  on  the  memorial. 

"THE  GENEALOGY  OF  THE  ABBE  FAMILY." 
All  of  the  Abbe  or  Abbey  name  or  descent  are  in  the  debt 
of  that  member  of  the  family  who  has  most  distinguished  the  name 
in  the  field  of  science.  I  refer  to  the  eminent  astronomer  and 
meteorologist.  Professor  Cleveland  Abbe,  so  widely  known  as 
"Old  Probabilities."  Throughout  his  long  and  busy  life  he  has 
made  more  extensive  researches  into  the  history  of  the  family 
than  any  other  member.  With  the  able  assistance  of  Josephine 
Genung  Nichols  (Mrs.  L.  Nelson  Nichols,  of  1915  Daly  Ave..  The 
Bronx,  New  York  City),  these  labors  are  about  to  bear  fruit 
in  the  publication  of  "The  Genealogy  of  the  Abbe  Family." 

William  L.  Weaver,  editor  of  the  Willimantic  "Journal,"  in 
his  genealogical  "History  of  Ancient  Windham,  Ct.,"  published 
in  1864,  records  that  Mr.  Abbe  was  at  that  time  connected  with 
the  U.  S.  Coast  Survey  and  acknowledges  his  assistance  in  these 


Z1 


words :  "We  are  under  many  obligations  to  Mr.  Cleveland  Abbe 
for  facts  and  records  respecting  the  Abbes.  He  very  generously 
paid  the  expense  of  a  thorough  search  of  the  early  records  of 
Salem  and  Wenham,  and  all  the  descendants  of  John  Abbe.  Sen., 
of  Wenham,  are  under  lasting  obligations  to  him  for  his  contri- 
butions to  their  genealogy." 

It  would  take  a  larger  volume  than  this  to  properly  record 
the  incalculably  great  services  to  our  country  and  the  world  which 
Professor  Abbe  has  rendered  since  those  words  were  written 
fifty-two  years  ago.  The  success  of  his  pioneer  work  in  storm 
warnings  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  in  1869,  led  to  the  establishment 
of  the  U.  S.  Weather  Bureau  in  1870.  In  1871  he  took  the 
initiative  in  establishing  ocean  meteorology  and  the  displav  of 
cautionary  signals,  and  in  1872  the  prediction  of  floods  in  rivers. 
In  1879  he  began  the  agitation  for  standard  time,  which  in  five 
years  gave  to  America,  and  later  to  the  world,  the  standard  hour 
meridians  now  used.  In  1882  he  inaugurated  civil  service  exam- 
inations in  meteorology,  and  in  1884  took  the  first  step  in  the 
formation  of  the  American  Society  of  Electrical  Engineers.  He 
initiated  special  observations  in  rainfall,  electricity,  earthquakes, 
the  use  of  balloons  in  meteorological  observations  and  co-operation 
in  international  polar  explorations,  to  mention  onlv  a  few  of  the 
activities  of  this  great  scientist,  who  at  the  annual  session  of  the 
National  Academy  of  Sciences,  in  April,  1916,  was  awarded  a 
medal  "for  distinguished  public  service  in  establishing  and  organ- 
izing the  United  States  weather  service." 

"Why  found  new  colleges  and  universities  to  teach  what  is 
already  taught  elsewhere?  Exploration  is  the  order  of  the  day. 
Give  us  first  the  means  to  increase  knowledge,  to  explore  nature 
and  to  bring  out  new  truths.  Let  us  perfect  knowledge  before 
we  dififuse  it  among  mankind." — Cleveland  Ahhc.  August,  i88o, 
before  the  .hnerieau  Association  for  the  Adrancciuent  of  Science. 

FIRST  CHILD  BORN  IN  EXFlKLD. 

The  inscriptions  record  much  of  the  early  life  of  Enfield. 
They  tell  that  the  town  was  founded  by  Captain  John  Pease, 
1654-1734,  and  that  he  was  the  father  of  the  first  child  born  here 
in  1683.  'J'his  was  Margaret  Pease,  who  married  Josiah  Colton 
and  lived  to  be  92  years  old.  The  first  boy  born  in  Enfield  was, 
as  already  mentioned,  Isaac  Kibbe,  father  of  the  Isaac  Kibbe 
who  iMiilt  the  meeting  house  which  is  now  the  town  hall. 

38 


FIRST  NATIVE  PHYSICIAN  OF  ENFIELD- 
Dr.  Ebenezer  Terry,  1696-1780,  was  the  first  native  physician 
of  Enfield.  He  practiced  for  a  number  of  years  in  South  King- 
ston, Rhode  Island,  where  he  married  Mary  Helme,  great-o-rand- 
daughter  of  Sergeant  Christopher  Helme,  of  Warwick,  Rhode 
Island,  who  died  in  1650.  Dr.  Terry  returned  to  Enfield  in  1722, 
and  at  one  time  represented  the  town  in  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts.  Enfield  did  not  become  a  part  of  Connecticut 
until  1750. 

ENFIELD'S  FIRST  WOMAN  DOCTOR. 
Dr.  Terry's  daughter,  Penelope  Terry,  1729-30-1818,  as  her 
father's  pupil  and  assistant  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  was 
a  forerunner  of  the  women  physicians  of  today.  In  her  obituary, 
already  referred  to,  the  Hartford  "Courant"  states  that  she  prac- 
ticed for  thirty-three  years  and  was  present  at  the  birth  of  1,389 
children.  She  welcomed  into  life  a  whole  generation  of  the 
mhabitants  of  this  town,  and  is  as  worthy  of  commemoration  for 
her  good  works  as  her  husband.  Captain  Abbey,  the  subject  of 
this  memorial.  She  was  the  mother  of  eleven  children,  and  left 
forty-five  grandchildren,  fifty-two  great-grandchildren  and  two 
great-great-grandchildren.  A  total  of  104  descendants  of  herself 
and  Captain  Abbey  were  living  at  the  time  of  her  death  January 
2,   1818. 

FIRST  MARRIAGE  IN  ENFIELD. 
The  first  marriage  in  Enfield  was  that  of  Captain  Samuel 
Terry,  1661-1730-31,  to  Hannah  Morgan,  1656-1696-7,  daughter 
of  Captain  Miles  Morgan,  defender  of  Springfield  against  the 
Indians  in  1675.  This  marriage,  celebrated  on  May  17,  1683, 
Imks  Enfield  to  Springfield,  where  Captain  Morgan's  statue  stands 
in  Court  House  Square. 

MORGAN  MEMORIAL. 

Another  of  Captain  Morgan's  descendants  links  Springfield 
and^Enfield  to  Hartford,  where  the  late  John  Pierpont  Morgan, 
1837-1913,  erected  the  splendid  memorial  to  his  father,  Junius 
Spencer  Morgan,  which  is  the  chief  ornament  of  the  city. 

Also  recorded  in  the  inscriptions  is  John  Alden,  of  the 
Mayflower.  The  Alden  family  is  already  commemorated  in 
Enfield  by  Alden's  Corner,  at  the  north  end  of  Enfield  street, 
just  as  the  Allen  family  is  commemorated  at  the  south  end  by 
Allen's  Corner. 

39 


/A]L£S'A\ORGAN 


r    i  m~i\t  »  ff-1 


STATUE  OF  MILES  MORGAN  AT  SPRINGFIELD 

I.  SCOTT  HARTLEY.  Sculptor 


MORGAN  MEMORIAL  GALLERIES  IN   HARTFORD 


ROMANCE  IN  THE  MORGAN  FAMILY. 

In  King  Philip's  war  I  found  Nathaniel  Hayward,  son  of 
Thomas  Hayward,  of  Bridgewater,  already  mentioned;  John 
Shaw,  son  of  Abraham  Shaw,  of  Dedham,  1637;  John  Whit- 
marsh,  son  of  John  Whitmarsh,  who  arrived  with  Hall's  party 
from  Weymouth,  England,  in  1635,  and  also  Thomas  Abbey  and 
Miles  Morgan,  the  hero  of  Springfield.  The  story  that  John  Alden 
fell  in  love  with  Priscilla  INIolines  while  the  "Mayflower"  lay  at 
Southampton  finds  its  duplicate  in  the  tale  of  young  Miles 
Morgan,  who,  wandering  in  January,  1636,  on  the  wharves  at 
Bristol,  beheld  the  fair  Prudence  Gilbert,  about  to  sail  with  her 
parents  for  America,  and  thereupon  hastily  determined  to  embark 
in  the  same  ship.  On  landing  in  Boston  Miles  joined  the  explor- 
ing party  of  Colonel  William  Pynchon,  which  located  the  town  of 
Springfield.  Although  the  only  pioneer  admitted  who  was  less 
than  twenty-one  years  of  age,  he  soon  became  second  in  command. 
No  sooner  had  the  youth  received  his  allotment  of  land  than  he 
started  back  on  foot  with  an  Indian  guide  to  Beverly,  where  the 
Gilbert  family  had  settled.  There  he  and  Prudence  were  married. 
He  brought  her  back,  also  on  foot,  with  the  Indian  and  a  horse 
purchased  in  Beverly,  both  laden  with  the  bride's  household  goods, 
and  going  before,  while  Captain  Morgan,  following  with  his 
matchlock  and  with  his  bride  by  his  side,  made  his  way  through 
the  trackless  forest  to  their  new  home  in  the  wilderness.  Here 
are  a  courtship  and  marriage  as  romantic  as  those  of  John  Alden 
and  Priscilla,  waiting  for  a  Longfellow  to  enshrine  them  in  verse. 
This  story  is  gleaned  from  "The  Family  of  Morgan."  by  the 
eminent  Shakespearean  scholar.  Dr.  Appleton  Morgan. 

ALLEN'S  UNIQUE  "HISTORY  OF  ENFIELD."" 

Through  the  generosity  of  Francis  Olcott  Allen,  Enfield 
possesses  the  most  complete  historic  record  of  any  town  in  this 
country,  published  in  three  volumes  of  a  thousand  pages  each,  in 
which  I  have  been  able  to  see  how  my  maternal  ancestors  lived 
and  moved  and  had  their  being,  as  in  a  looking-glass.  Here  I 
read  of  Samuel  Terry,  third  captain  of  the  town's  militia  and 
deputy  to  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts  before  the  boun- 
daries were  so  altered  in  1750  that  Enfield  became  a  part  of 
Connecticut ;  and  of  the  long  line  of  warlike  Abbeys,  beginning 
with  John,  who  came  in  the  "Bonaventure"  and  settled  in  Salem 
in  1636;  his  son  Thomas,  who  settled  in  Enfield  after  King  Philip's 

41 


war ;  his  grandson,  Lieutenant  Thomas  Abbey,  and  his  great- 
grandson,  Thomas  Abbey,  ensign  and  heutenant  in  the  French 
and  Indian  wars,  and  afterward  captain  in  the  revokition,  whose 
service  I  was  invited  to  represent  in  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati. 

THE  SOCIETY  OF  THE  CINCINNATI. 
The  Continental  officers,  indignant  at  a  Congress  which 
failed  to  make  provision  for  disabled  officers  and  for  the  widows 
and  orphans  of  deceased  soldiers,  resolved  to  luidertake  their 
relief  by  starting  a  fund  to  which  each  should  contribute  one 
month's  pay.  Their  society  was  founded  on  May  13,  1783,  at 
the  \^erplanck  house,  still  standing  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson 
at    Fishkill,    New    York.      .At    that    time    the    already    venerable 


MOUNT   GULIAN 

Homestead  of  the  Verplanck  Family  at  Fishkill-on-the-Hudson,  in  which  the  Society 
of  the  Cincinnati  was  organized,  May  13,  1783. 

mansion  of  the  Verplanck  family  was  the  headquarters  of  Baron 
Steuben,  who  organized  the  society  with  the  co-operation  of 
General  Knox,  .Alexander  Hamilton,  General  Lafayette  and  other 
officers  of  the  Revolution.  They  chose  George  Washington  for 
the  first  president  of  the  society. 

After  the  lapse  of  133  years  it  is  interesting  to  recall  that 
at  the  time  of  its  founding  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  was 
regarded  with  suspicion  as  the  entering  wedge  of  returning 
despotism,  that  many  feared  it  might  result  in  the  establishment 
in  America  of  an  hereditary  aristocracy  and  that  even  monarchy 

42 


itself  might,  through  its  mahgn  influence,  be  restored.  Out  of 
this  opposition  to  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati,  which  was  so 
serious  and  so  active  that  Washington  and  his  advisers  at  one 
time  contemplated  the  abandonment  of  the  project  altogether, 
there  developed  the  most  powerful  organization  in  municipal 
politics  that  this  country  has  ever  known.  It  appears  to  be  un- 
questioned that  the  Society  of  Tammany  was  organized  in  Xew 
York  Citv  to  protect  democratic  institutions  from  the  supposed 
menace  of  the   Society  of  the  Cincinnati. 

THE  KIBBE  FAMILY. 

Edward  Kibbe  of  Boston,  1645,  is  said  to  have  come  from 
Exeter  in  England.     He  settled  at  Muddy  River,  now  Brookline. 


The  Order  of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati,  designed  by  Major  L'Enfant  the  French 
engineer,  who  made  the  plan  of  the  city  of  Washington. 

His  son,  Elisha  Kibbe,  was  baptized  in  the  First  Church  in  Boston 
in  1645,  married  Rachel  Cooke,  of  Salem,  and  lived  to  be  97. 
He  was  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Enfield,  and  his  youngest  son, 
Isaac  Kibbe,  born  in  1683,  was  the  first  boy  born  here. 
His  daughter.  Rachel  Kibbe.  born  in  1688,  lived  until  her 
100th  year.  As  already  noted,  she  remembered  the  raising  of 
the  second  church  edifice  in  Enfield  in  1706,  when  "there 
was  a  great  frolick  which  lasted  3  days."  She  married  first 
Jonathan  Bush,  1681-1746,  and  secondly  Lieutenant  John 
Meacham.  She  was  the  grandmother  of  Hannah  Bush,  the  wife 
of  Colonel  Amos  Alden.     Her  brother,  Isaac  Kibbe,  1683-1766, 

43 


was  the  father  of  Isaac  Kibbe,  1731-1779,  who,  during-  the  revo- 
lution, kept  the  tavern  which  stood  on  the  east  side  of  Enfield 
street  less  than  a  quarter  mile  to  the  north  of  the  meeting  house, 
which  he  btiilt  and  completed  in  1775,  and  around  which  Captain 
Abbey  drummed  the  Lexington  Alarm.  Another  descendant  of 
Elisha  Kibbe,  the  pioneer  settler,  is  the  well  known  genealogist 
and  authority  on  Enfield  history,  James  Allen  Kibbe,  of  \\'are- 
house   Point. 

THE  TRAIL  OF  THE  ABBEY  FAMILY. 
The  trail  of  the  Abbey  family,  in  the  direct  line  from  the 
immigrant,  John  Abbey  of  Wenham,  through  Captain  Thomas 
Abbey  of  the  Revolution  to  Lieutenant  Henry  Abbey,  Jr..  now 
serving  under  General  Pershing  in  ]\Iexico,  as  shown  in  the  in- 
scriptions and  seals  on  this  Enfield  memorial,  stretches  from 
rugged  Massachusetts  Bay  to  the  smiling  Connecticut  valley ; 
thence  across  New  York  State,  with  a  halt  at  Franklin  in  Dela- 
ware County,  where  Seth  Alden  Abbe}-  was  born,  and  another 
halt  at  W'atertown  in  Jefiferson  County,  where  his  sons,  Henry 
Gilbert  Abbey  and  Edwin  Alden  Abbey,  were  born ;  the  next 
trek  was  into  the  \\'estern  Reserve  of  Connecticut  at  Cleveland, 
Ohio;  and  thence,  ever  westerly,  some  going  by  way  of  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  and  others  by  the  Santa  Fe  trail  across  the 
plains,  they  became  a  part  of  the  great  drift  which  began  in  1849 
and  led  to  California,  to  Oregon,  to  Arizona  and  latest  of  all,  to 
Mexico. 

A  STUDY  IN  HEREDITY. 

The  preparation  of  these  inscriptions  has  been  a  studv  in 
heredity.  My  grandfather  and  his  elder  brother,  Dorrephus 
Abbey,  were  clearly  inspired  by  the  example  and  teachings  of  their 
grandfather.  Cai)tain  Abbey  ;  and  1  find  sinfilar  traits  and  actions 
cropping  out  all  along  the  line.  In  every  American  war  the 
Abbeys  have  been  animated  by  the  spirit  of  1775,  and  to-dav,  as 
I  write  these  words,  their  latest  and  youngest  defender  of  the 
Hag  is  upholding  the  traditions  of  the  familv  in  Mexico. 

Henry  Abbey,  Jr.,  failing  to  secure  the  appointment  to  \\^est 
Point  which  he  sought,  volunteered  as  a  private  in  the  cavalry, 
passed  his  examinations  for  a  lieutenancy,  married  his  major's 
datighter,  and  in  March.  1^)16,  crossed  the  Mexican  border  with 
the  Tenth  Cavalry  in  the  pursuit  (if  Villa,  which  followed  the 
Mexican  General's  raid  on  Columbus.  New  Mexico. 

44 


In  what  particular  will  the  future  historian  discriminate 
between  this  little  raid  of  Mexican  bandits  into  the  United  States 
and  the  big  raid  of  German  bandits  into  Belgium?  There  are 
differences  in  quality  even  in  bandits,  and  it  has  not  been  charged 
against  Villa  that  either  he  or  any  of  his  ancestors  ever  pledged 
themselves  in  writing  or  otherwise  to  keep  their  hands  oft'  of  the 
United  States,  as  nobody  questions  that  Germany  did  on  a 
celebrated  "scrap  of  paper"  with  regard  to  her  neighbor,  Belgium. 
To  my  unkultured  mind  \^illa  seems  a  more  decent  brigand  than 
Wilhelm,  when  one  takes  into  account  the  opportunities  for 
enlightenment  enjoyed  by  these  respective  raiders. 

A  RARE   FRIENDSHIP. 

Which  Brought  About  the  Establishment  of  a  Great  Scientific  School  in 
Connecticut's  Western  Reserve  in  Ohio 

Leonard  Case,  the  founder  of  the  Case  School,  had  a  strong 
dislike  for  business.  On  the  death  of  his  father  in  1866,  when 
he  came  into  possession  of  the  Case  estate,  he  made  his  life-long 
friend,  Henry  G.  Abbey,  general  manager  and  confidential  agent 
of  the  property.  He  was  thus  enabled,  until  his  death  in  1880, 
to  devote  himself  to  his  literary  and  mathematical  studies.  The 
story  of  this  beautiful  friendship  was  well  told  by  Judge  James 
D.  Cleveland,  president  of  the  board  of  trustees,  in  his  address 
at  the  Case  School  commencement  in  1891  : 

'•Mr.  Abbey  relieved  Mr.  Case  of  all  business  cares  and  was 
most  eminently  qualified  for  the  duties  which  he  had  been  called 
to  undertake. '  He  had  lived  in  Cleveland  from  his  infancy,  and 
united  great  strength  of  mind  to  a  thorough  study  of  the  law, 
long  experience  in  business,  knowledge  of  the  world  and  a  culti- 
vated taste  in  literature.     He  had  been  a  practicing  lawyer  in 
Milwaukee,  clerk  of  the  Wisconsin  House  of  Representatives;  a 
pioneer  for  gold  in  1849  in  California;  he  had  rocked  the  cradle 
on  the  sands  of  the  Sacramento  and  Klamath  rivers,  and  had 
brought  back  to  Cleveland  the  net  results— some  gold  and  a  full 
stock  of  experience.     He  had  settled  down  to  sober  hard  w^ork 
in  his  profession,  had  been  much  trusted  as  a  master  commis- 
sioner, referee  and  administrator  of  estates,  and  was  a  thoroughly 
equipped  and  able  coadjutor  of  the  projects  and  purposes  of  Air. 
Case  in  relation  to  the  property  and  all  other  matters  requiring 
counsel,  labor  and  management. 

"The  estate  was  not  only  of  such  volume  and  varied  quality, 
composed  as  it  was  of  city  and  farms  lands,  blocks  of  buildings 

45 


in  process  of  construction  and  under  rental,  situated  near  and 
remote  from  the  center  of  activity,  that  they  involved  negotiations 
and  complications  with  all  municipal  and  financial  corporations; 
indeed,  with  all  sorts  of  men— capitalists,  merchants,  mechanics, 
laborers,  farmers  and  gardeners.  The  business  required  a  very 
high  order  of  administrative  qualities,  and  put  the  abilities  of  the 
confidential  agent  and  manager  to  the  highest  tension.  In  these 
relations  ^Ir.  Abbey  was  so  well  equipped  as  to  bring  to  Mr. 
Case  the  perfect  relief  and  exemption  from  care  and  vexation 
about  his  business  that  he  aimed  at,  and  gave  him  opportunity 
for  study  and  the  pursuits  that  made  life  tolerable. 

"Air.  Case's  struggle  with  broken  health  was  also  partici- 
pated in  by  Mr.  Abbey,  who  was  always  at  his  side  with  his 
cheering  conversational  powers.  He  accompanied  him  usually 
on  his  excursions,  and  stood  like  a  tower  of  strength  between 
him  and  the  aggressive  and  persistent  pressure  of  worldly  affairs. 
None  could  so  well  have  given  to  you  the  story  of  that  secluded 
life  of  Leonard  Case — thoughtful  for  those  he  esteemed  and 
respected,  and  wisely  considerate  for  those  who  should  come  after 
him — as  Henry  Abbey  could  have  done.  He  did  not  do  it,  and 
we  must  conclude  that  what  he  did  not  write  or  say  of  this  life 
was  as  sacred  in  his  possession  as  it  had  been  during  the  lifetime 
of  a  man  of  whom  he  spoke  in  these  few  but  comprehensive 
words,  "He  was  the  wisest  and  the  best  man  that  I  ever  knew.'  " 

In  1877  and  1879  Mr.  Case  deeded  real  estate  to  Mr.  Abbey 
to  be  used  after  his  death  in  the  establishment  of  the  Case  School. 
This  trust  was  carried  out  with  great  efficiency.  The  year  follow- 
ing Air.  Case's  death  instruction  was  begun  in  his  old  home 
facing  the  public  square,  and  in  1885  the  school  was  removed  to 
a  new  building  on  the  present  site.  Unfortunately,  when  only 
half  completed,  this  building  was  totally  destroyed  by  fire,  and 
Air.  Abbey  had  to  begin  his  work  all  over  again.  He  did  not 
live  to  see  the  new  main  building  fully  completed.  It  is  now  only 
one  of  seven  buildings  on  the  25-acre  campus,  amply  maintained 
by  the  income  of  the  real  estate  deeded  for  the  purpose. 

Leonard  Case's  grandfather.  Aleshach  Case,  settled  with 
his  family  in  the  Western  Reserve  in  1800.  when  there  were  not 
fifty  people  beside  themselves  on  the  whole  domain  of  the  Con- 
necticut Land  Company.  Aleshach  Case  was  of  Dutch  descent, 
and  his  wife  the  daughter  of  Leonard  Eckstein,  a  German,  who 
fled  to  America  from  religious  persecution  in  Wiremburg,  where 
he  was  imprisoned  for  his  opinions.     He  was  confined  in  a  tower 

46 


80  feet  high.  His  sister  brought  him  a  cake  in  which  she  had 
baked  a  slender  silk  cord.  This  he  let  down  at  night  and  escaped 
down  the  rope  which  his  friends  attached  to  it.  To  his  grand- 
children in  America  he  showed  his  hands,  still  scarred  from  the 
blisters  made  by  the  rope. 

Owing  to  the  serious  illness  of  Meshach  Case  the  care  of 
his  family  of  eight  children  fell  upon  the  shoulders  of  his  eldest 
son,  Leonard  Case,  Senior,  at  the  age  of  fourteen.  Space  does  not 
permit  to  tell  of  the  varied  activities  of  this  city  maker ;  it  must 
suffice  to  say  that  when  21  he  became  confidential  clerk  of  the 
agent  of  the  Connecticut  Land  Company,  and  twenty  years  later 


CASE  SCHOOL  OF  APPLIED  SCIENCE,  Cleveland,  Ohio 

The  Main  Building,  constructed  under  the  supervision  of  Henry  G.  Abbey 

was  made  agent  of  the  company,  which  post  he  held  for  twenty- 
eight  years.  No  man  had  more  to  do  with  the  development  of 
Cleveland,  and  he  was  the  authority  on  land  titles  in  the  Western 
Reserve. 

William  Case,  elder  son  of  Leonard  Case,  Senior,  was  a 
great  hunter,  and  with  a  coterie  of  naturalists  made  a  collection 
of  a  thousand  birds  and  beasts  which  they  killed,  stuffed  and 
mounted.  These  they  housed  in  a  building  known  as  "The  Ark," 
which  stood  on  the  site  of  the  present  Cleveland  post  office,  close 
to  the  public  square.  No  birds  or  animals  in  Ohio  or  Michigan 
were  unknown  to  these  men,  who  were  called  the  "Arkites,"  and 


47 


John  j.  Audubon  acknowledged  his  indebtedness  to  them.  W'ilHam 
Case  had  a  facihty  for  drawing  and  painting  in  water  colors  that 
enabled  him  to  convey  to  the  great  naturalist  the  colors  and  forms 
of  newly  discovered  birds  and  other  specimens  of  natural  history. 
He  died  in  1862,  leaving  uncompleted  a  fine  building,  which 
included  a  music  hall,  library  and  a  new  home  for  "The  Ark." 
His  father  and  brother  completed  this  building,  which  stood  on 
the  site  now  included  in  the  enlarged  post  office. 

This  Case  Library  was  the  most  delightful  library  I  ever 
had  access  to.  The  fee  was  nominal,  one  dollar  a  year,  and  the 
approach  to  its  treasures  unrestricted.  One  wasted  no  time 
making  out  slips  and  waiting  for  books.  All  were  ready  to  your 
hand,  and  I  never  heard  of  even  the  most  valuable  books  being 
stolen.  The  Audubon  volumes  always  lay  on  a  great  table  in 
front  of  the  librarian's  desk.  In  the  new  "Ark,"  housed  in  Room 
19  in  Case  Hall,  Leonard  Case,  Junior,  spent  many  happy  hours 
in  the  congenial  society  of  "The  Arkites,"  a  select  group  of 
cultured  men,  leaders  of  the  intellectual  life  of  Cleveland.  As 
the  chief  city  of  the  Western  Reserve,  Cleveland  derived  its  char- 
acter from  New  England  and  mainly  from  Connecticut.  Its 
first  settlers,  and  a  large  portion  of  those  who  came  later,  were 
people  of  education  and  intelligence.  The  institutions  they  built 
up  are  of  the  same  social  and  literary  tendency  as  those  of  the 
mother  colony,  and  no  small  taste  has  been  cultivated  for  science, 
especially  those  branches  of  a  practical  character. 

Judge  Cleveland,  from  whose  biographical  address  on  the 
founder  of  Case  School  I  have  gathered  most  of  these  partic- 
ulars, was  l)orn  in  Connecticut,  and  was  related  to  President 
Cleveland  and  to  General  Moses  Cleveland,  of  Canterbury.  Con- 
necticut, who  in  1796  located  the  city  of  Cleveland.  This  was 
while  he  was  engaged  in  blocking  into  townships  the  Western 
Reserve  of  Connecticut,  which  extended  for  over  100  miles  along 
the  Ohio  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  westward  from  the  boundaries  of 
Pennsylvania.  Cleveland  was  named  in  honor  of  General 
Cleveland. 

The  grandfather  of  the  late  Professor  Cleveland  Abbe  was 
Moses  Cleveland  Abbe.  1785-1871.  Tie  was  a  namesake  of  Gen- 
eral Cleveland,  but  not  related  by  blood.  About  1818  Moses 
Cleveland  Abbe  moved  into  the  Abbe  homestead  at  "Dog  Hill." 
near  Windham,  now  owned  1)\-  his  grandson,  A\';dter  \])l)e,  l)rotlier 
of  Cleveland  Abbe. 

48 


THE  ADAMS  FAMILY. 

John  Adams,  who  came  to  Plymouth  on  the  Fortune  in 
1621,  was  the  first  of  the  name  to  set  foot  on  these  shores,  but 
the  descendants  of  his  brother  Henry,  who  settled  in  Braintree 
in  1640,  have  outstripped  those  of  the  first  arrival,  and  include 
more  illustrious  men  in  a  single  direct  line  than  any  other  family 
in  America.  Both  of  the  immigrants  are  supposed  to  be  brothers 
of  Thomas  Adams,  of  Plymouth,  in  England,  who  was  an 
original  grantee  of  the  Massachusetts  charter  and  assistant  to 
Governors  Cradock  and  Winthrop.  John  Adams,  second  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  once  remarked  that  he  w^as  more 
proud  of  his  "descent  for  160  years  from  a  line  of  virtuous, 
independent  New  England  farmers  than  from  regal  or  noble 
scoundrels  since  the  flood."  Agriculture  seems  to  incline  men 
to  independence  of  thought  and  action,  while  the  modern  factory 
life  seems  to  have  almost  the  effect  of  a  penitentiary  upon  the 
workers.  Witness  the  subservience  of  the  German  people  since 
Germany  has  become  industrialized  and  think  what  the  same 
people  w^ere  in  the  revolution  of  1848.  when  Germany  was  still 
an  agricultural  country,  as  she  was  in  the  heroic  days  of  1814. 
It  seems  to  be  "back  to  the  soil,"  if  you  would  have  freemen 
instead  of  machines  ready  and  apparently  willing  to  be  cannon- 
food  for  the  modern  Attila. 

UNPARALLELED  RECORD  OF  SERVICES  BY  ONE 

FAMILY. 

The  public  services  of  Samuel  Adams.  "The  Father  of  the 
American  Revolution,"  foremost  politician  of  his  time  and  source 
of  all  the  most  important  measures  passed  bv  the  Continental 
Congress  ;  together  with  those  of  his  second  cousin,  John  Adams, 
Minister  to  France  from  1777  to  1782,  to  England  1782  to  1788. 
and  second  President  of  the  United  States  :  of  the  latter's  son, 
John  Quincy  Adams,  sixth  President  of  the  United  States,  and  of 
his  grandson.  Charles  Francis  Adams.  Alinister  to  England  dur- 
ing the  Civil  War — these  I  believe  to  be  easily  the  most  eminent 
and  long-continued  achievements  of  any  one  family  in  the  re- 
corded history  of  this  or  any  other  nation.  It  was  John  Adams 
who  suggested  George  Washington  for  commander-in-chief  of 
the  army,  by  this  master  stroke  practically  committing  Virginia 
to  Massachusett's  policy  of  resistance  and  to  the  cause  of  inde- 
pendence.    Adams   retired   from  the   Presidency  after  26  years 

49 


of  uninterrupted  service  in  a  greater  variety  of  trusts  than  fell 
to  the  lot  of  any  other  American  of  his  time,  and  he  was  the 
only  President  who  has  had  the  satisfaction  to  see  a  son  elected 
to  the  Presidency.  John  Ouincy  Adams  signed  more  commercial 
treaties  than  had  been  negotiated  since  the  foundation  of  the 
government,  and  after  retirement  from  the  Presidency  served 
16  years  as  a  Congressman.  The  "Monroe  Doctrine"  was 
undoubtedly  originated  by  J.  O.  Adams  when  Secretary  of  State, 
and  he  was  its  spirited  and  consistent  promulgator  and  adherent. 
He  was  the  chief  opponent  of  slavery  in  Congress,  and  originated 
the  emancipation  doctrine  upon  the  authority  of  which  President 
Lincoln  issued  his  proclamation.  His  son,  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  was  our  Minister  to  Great  Britain  throughout  the  Civil 
War,  and  James  Russell  Lowell  said  of  him  that  "None  of  our 
generals  in  the  field,  not  Grant  himself,  did  us  better  or  more 
trying  service  than  he  in  his  forlorn  outpost  in  London."  The 
frigid,  restrained  manner  characteristic  of  the  Adamses  stood  him 
in  good  stead  in  that  trying  time,  and  his  sturdiness  and  simplicity 
strongly  appealed  to  the  English  mind.  This  service  he  followed 
up  with  his  skillful  adjustment  of  the  Alabama  claims  at  Geneva. 
This  unique,  continuous  and  unparalleled  service  by  the 
members  of  a  single  family  was  not  unworthily  continued  by 
Charles  Francis  Adams  2nd,  whose  memoirs  have  recently  been 
published.  He  tells  how  both  his  father  and  grandfather  were 
so  absorbed  in  thinking  and  writing  on  public  afifairs  that  they 
did  not  care  to  get  near  to  nature,  whether  in  the  woods  or  on 
the  water.  He  is  most  amusing  when  he  rails  against  "the  terrible 
New  England  conscience."'  the  dour  New  England  Sabbath,  and 
how  he  longed  for  Monday  morning!  He  says  his  forbears 
were  "by  inheritance  ingrained  Puritans,  and  no  Puritan  by 
nature  ever  was  really  companionable."  But  all  the  same  these 
men  lived  lofty  lives  and  achieved  vast  results.  The  Adamses 
and  their  kind  made  a  new  and  greater  England  here  in  America 
and  developed  democratic  institutions  in  consistent  harmony  with 
Magna  Charta  and  the  work  of  Pym  and  Hampden,  the  English 
common  law,  and  all  tlie  rights  and  privileges  for  which  English- 
speaking  freemen  have  fought  and  bled  these  hundreds  of 
years.  Races  alien  to  our  ideas  of  freedom  and  independence 
because  of  age-long  repression,  with  no  conception  of  political 
liberty  and  scant  political  talent  because  of  lack  of  opportunity 
for  its  exercise  under  autocratic  rule,  have  gathered  arovmd  the 

50 


radiant  nucleus  of  our  revolutionary  sires  and  threaten  to  engulf 
us.  It  must  be  made  clear  to  them  that  the  United  States  was 
an  English  colony,  that  we  are  still  an  English-speaking  nation, 
and  that  other  nationalities  have  had  small  part  in  the  political 
making  of  this  commonwealth.  If  they  now  desire  to  submit 
themselves  and  their  future  to  the  guidance  of  Obrigkeit  or 
higher  powers  than  the  votes  of  their  fellow  citizens  of  America, 
let  them  return  to  their  feudal  allegiance  to  Czar  or  Kaiser,  and  no 
longer  be  permitted  to  conspire  in  behalf  of  their  imperial  mas- 
ters amongst  this  self-ruling  people. 

DEMOCRACY  AND  COLONIZATION. 

In  the  speech  of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  previously  quoted,  he 
insists  that  the  immigrant  be  required  to  learn  English  or  else  go 
back  to  his  native  land.  In  this  demand  Mr.  Roosevelt  makes  no 
appeal  to  race  prejudice.  His  own  ancestry  is  chiefly  Dutch, 
but  he  recognizes  that  English  is  the  language  of  this  country, 
just  as  its  founders  and  its  institutions  were  of  English  origin. 
The  true  American  does  not  fight  to  preserve  these  precious 
legacies  because  they  are  of  English  origin,  but  because  he  believes 
in  the  principles  they  represent.  No  people  in  the  world  have 
fought  more  valiantly  for  freedom  than  the  Dutch ;  so  have  the 
Swiss,  the  French,  the  Italians,  the  Spanish  and  the  Portuguese. 
The  Germans  and  the  Russians  have  also  fought  for  freedom,  but 
they  have  not  yet  succeeded  in  throwing  ofif  the  yoke  of  dynastic 
and  feudal  tyranny.  It  is  a  curious  thing  that  only  those  peoples 
who  have  developed  democratic  institutions  have  proved  suc- 
cessful as  colonizers,  and  only  in  proportion  as  the  colonists 
themselves  have  developed  democratically  have  the  colonies  be- 
come great  and  powerful.  So,  if  the  German  people,  and  not 
merely  their  Hohenzollern  and  Junker  masters,  desire  new  places 
in  the  sun,  they  must  first  develop  the  sunshine  of  democracy  in 
themselves.    Colonies  do  not  thrive  on  the  soil  of  despotism. 

Before  leaving  the  Adams  family,  work  of  theirs  in  lighter 
vein  should  be  mentioned.  William  T.  Adams,  better  known  as 
"Oliver  Optic,"  whose  books  for  boys  and  girls  had  a  great  popu- 
larity a  generation  ago,  was  a  descendant  of  Henry  Adams  of 
Braintree. 


51 


THE  ALDEN  FAMILY. 

Given  the  name  of  "Alden"  tended  to  arouse  my  interest  in 
all  that  related  to  my  ancestor,  John  Alden,  "the  Puritan  scholar." 
The  family  Bible  records  the  descent  back  to  Colonel  Amos  Alden, 
of  Enfield,  my  great-great-grandfather,  and  when  I  was  asked  to 
join  the  Society  of  Mayflower  Descendants  T  found  no  difficulty 
in  proving  my  descent,  as  Colonel  Alden's  name  was  in  the 
earliest  published  genealogy  of  the  Alden  family.  When  I  say 
"no  difficulty"  I  do  not  wish  it  understood  that  there  is  no  labor 
attached  to  securing  admission  to  the  Mayflower  Society.  None 
of  the  other  ancestral  societies  approaches  in  strictness  of  positive 
proof  of  descent  to  the  requirements  of  this  society.    Membership 


in  it  is  therefore  of  the  highest  value  in  establishing  the  family 
record  and  also  in  making  it  permanent.  It  took  me  two  or  three 
months  to  secure  all  the  documents  and  certificates  required  by 
the  genial  founder,  Captain  Richard  Henry  Greene,  who  then 
set  me  at  work  to  establish  a  Mayflower  Society  in  New  Jersey. 

Hannah  Alden,  1771-1821,  was  the  daughter  of  Colonel  Amos 
Alden,  1745-1826.  According  to  the  Connecticut  State  Register, 
he  was  in  1800  captain  of  the  Fifth  Company,  First  Regiment, 
Connecticut  Cavalry ;  major  of  the  same,  1802-6,  and  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  the  First  Regiment  in  1807.  Amos  Alden  was  de- 
scended from  Joseph  Kingsbury,  of  Dedham,  1641,  from  Thomas 
Hayward,  an  original  proprietor  and  the  earliest  settler  of  Bridge- 


z^ 


water,  and  from  John  Willis,  first  deacon  of  the  Bridgewater 
church.  Amos  Alden's  wife  was  Hannah  Bush,  who  was  de- 
scended from  John  Bush,  of  the  "Alexander,"  1634;  from  Thomas 
Lamb,  of  Roxbury,  who  came  in  the  fleet  with  Winthrop  in  1630; 
from  Edward  Kibbe,  of  Boston,  1645,  who  married  Mary  Part- 
ridge; from  Henry  Cooke,  of  Salem,  1638,  who  married  Judith 
Burds'ell  in  1639,  and  from  Richard  French,  1674-1757,  of  Enfield. 
The  descendants  of  John  Alden,  "the  Puritan  scholar"  of 
the  Mayflower,  are  very  numerous,  and  include  many  of  the  cluef 
representatives  of  American  literature  and  statesmanship,  such 
as  William  Cullen  Bryant  and  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow, 
among  the  poets ;  Henry  Mills  Alden,  for  many  years  editor  of 
Harper's  Magazine,  and  all  of  the  distinguished  line,  just  de- 
scribed, that  are  descended  from  Hannah  Bass  Adams,  who  was 
the  granddaughter  of  John  Alden  and  the  grandmother  of  John 
Adams,  second  President  of  the  L^nited  States. 

THE  QUEST  OF  ANCESTORS. 

[From  an   article  by    Alden    Freeman    published    in    "  Town    and    Country,"    on 

March    18,   1905.]      ■ 

A  true  and  sincere  study  of  genealogy  should  lead  not  to 
pride  of  ancestry  by  the  picking  and  choosing  of  those  forbears 
who  distinguished  themselves,  but  rather  to  a  democratic  feeling 
of  brotherhood  with  all  mankind;  for,  on  going  back  only  a  few 
generations,  we  will  find  ourselves  related  to  nearly  all  the 
hihabitants  of  a  certain  town  such  as  Enfield  or  Duxbury,  and 
among  our  fellow  descendants  will  find  some,  perhaps,  in  the 
humblest  walks  of  life;  so,  if  pursued  in  the  proper  spirit,  I  be- 
lieve genealogical  studies  will  lead,  not  to  inordinate  pride  of 
birth,  but  rather  to  emulation  of  the  virtues  of  distinguished 
ancestors  and  to  sympathy  and  helpfulness  for  their  less  fortunate 

descendants. 

In  joining  patriotic  and  ancestral  societies  the  feature  which 
chieflv  interested  me  was  the  study  of  particular  periods  of  our 
history  which  it  necessitates.  With  the  personal  interest  aroused 
by  discovering  that  those  of  our  own  blood  took  part  in  stirrmg 
events,  the  drybones  of  history  take  on  flesh  and  the  lusty  hues  of 
romance.  In"  collecting  the  records  of  twenty-five  ancestors  for 
the  Society  of  Colonial  Wars  I  covered  the  whole  period  from  the 
settlement  of  Jamestown  to  the  battle  of  Lexington  and  came 
upon  adventures  quite  as  alluring  as  those  described  by  Mary 
Tohnston  in  "Audrey,"  or  by  Thackeray  in  "The  Virginians,"  and 
which  led  across  the  sea  to  Scotland,  to  Wales,  to  Holland  and  to 
France,  as  well  as  to  England. 

53 


The  preparation  of  the  papers  required  to  join  any  of  the 
patriotic  societies  opens  up  vistas  of  interesting  ancestral  person- 
ages. In  the  Duxbury  mihtary  company  I  found  marching  with 
John  Alden  in  1643  his  son  Joseph ;  John  WilHs,  first  representa- 
tive of  Bridgewater  in  the  general  court  of  Plymouth  colony  and 
her  deputy  for  twenty-five  years;  Moses  Simmons,  of  the  "For- 
tune," 1621;  John  Harding,  1586-1669,  deputy  to  the  general 
court,  and  Thomas  Hay  ward,  who  came  first  in  the  "William 
and  Francis,"  1632,  and  secondly  in  the  "Hercules,"  1635.  Like 
John  Willis,  the  latter  was  an  original  proprietor  of  Bridgewater. 
To  each  of  these  members  of  the  Duxbury  trainband  I  traced 
descent.  In  the  same  year  John  Dunham,  1588-1669,  representa- 
tive of  Plymouth,  1639  to  1664;  James  Adams,  of  Marshfield,  son 
of  John,  who  came  in  the  "Fortune,"  1621  ;  Thomas  Harvey, 
1617-1651,  of  Taunton,  and  William  Vassall,  1592-1655,  of  Scit- 
uate,  marched  side  by  side,  and  to  each  I  likewise  traced  descent. 

Probably  it  never  occurred  to  any  of  these  ten  men  of 
sturdy  English  descent  that  the  blood  which  they  then  risked  in 
defence  of  Plymouth  colony  would  be  mingled  in  the  veins  of 
joint  descendants  of  them  all  two  centuries  and  a  half  later,  with 
the  blood  of  Huguenot  Frenchmen,  canny  Scotsmen  and  stolid 
Dutchmen,  which,  with  still  other  strains,  go  to  make  up  the  con- 
glomerate known  as  an  American. 

THE  VASSALL  FAMILY. 
The  family  of  Vassall  particularly  interested  me.  In  their 
annals  will  be  found  a  fruitful  field  for  the  historical  novelist. 
They  were  an  ancient  Catholic  family  of  Normandy,  which  in- 
cluded two  cardinals  and  a  marshal  of  France ;  but  Jean  Vassall 
became  a  Huguenot  and  fled  into  England  a  few  years  before  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.  He  was  one  of  the  ancestors 
through  whom  I  established  my  claim  to  membership  in  the 
Huguenot  Society,  which  flourishes  under  the  fostering  care  of  its 
long-time  secretary,  Mrs.  James  M.  Lawton,  the  daughter  of 
General  Robert  Anderson,  of  Fort  Sumter  fame.  At  his  own 
cost  this  John  Vassall  fitted  out  and  commanded  two  ships  of  war 
against  the  Spanish  Armada.  Later  he  became  a  member  of  the 
Virginia  Company,  which  made  the  settlement  at  Jamestown  in 
1607.  While  in  London  in  1900  I  one  day  went  down  to  Stepney 
and  visited  the  ancient  parish  church  of  St.  Dunstan's,  where  I 
saw  the  record  of  lohn  Vassall's  death  "of  the  plague,"  September 
13,  1625. 

54 


ELIZABETH  YASSALL,  LADY  HOLLAND. 

Among  the  descendants  of  John  Yassall,  both  in  America 
and  England,  easily  the  most  celebrated  was  Elizabeth  Yassall, 
already  mentioned,  who  married,  as  her  second  husband.  Henry 
Richard  Yassall-Fox,  third  Baron  Holland.  Both  of  her  hus- 
bands, by  the  provisions  of  her  grandfather's  will,  were  required 
to  assume  the  surname  of  Yassall.  The  family  of  her  first  hus- 
band, Sir  Godfrey  Yassall-Webster,  Bart.,  owned  Battle  Abbey 
from  1719  to  1849,  and  in  1901  it  was  restored  to  the  family  as 
the  property  of  her  descendant.  Sir  Arthur  Webster. 

Lord  Holland  was  the  nephew  of  the  great  statesman,  Charles 
James  Fox.     While  making  the  grand  tour,  and  only  twenty,  he 


HOLLAND   HOUSE 

The  first  of  the  great  historic  houses  of  England  which  was  restored 

and  embellished  by  the  heiress  to  an  American  fortune. 


met  in  Florence  the  beautiful  Lady  Yassall-Webster,  aged  twenty- 
three,  and  then  began  the  love  which  ended  only  with  his  life. 
By  act  of  Parliament  the  first  marriage  of  Elizabeth  Yassall  was 
dissolved  and  she  became  the  wife  of  Lord  Holland.  Together 
they  set  out  upon  a  career  of  political  and  social  success  un- 
equaled  before  or  since  in  English  life.  Lady  Holland  was  a 
remarkable  woman.  Brilliant,  witty,  with  a  queenly  grace  of 
manner,  she  was  also  well  informed,  possessed  of  wonderful  tact 
and,  above  all,  gifted  with  common  sense ;  an  ardent  horticulturist, 
she  planned  gardens  and  introduced  the  dahlia  into  England;  as 

55 


warm  a  heart  as  ever  beat,  she  never  deserted  a  friend.  She 
established  the  only  true  salon  ever  known  in  England,  and  there 
the  great  Whig  party  came  into  power.  To  comprehend  the 
charm,  distinction  and  power  of  the  gatherings  at  Lady  Holland's 
home  one  must  read  Macaulay's  essay  on  Lord  Holland,  which 
shows  more  human  feeling  and  affection  than  anything  else  from 
the  great  historian's  pen;  or,  if  you  would  pursue  the  subject 
further,  read  "The  Holland  House  Circle,"  by  Lloyd  Saunders. 


ELIZABETH   VASSALL,    LADY    HOLLAND 

From  the  portrait  by  Fagan 

It  has  been  said  that  from  1750  to  1850  the  history  of  Holland 
House  was  the  history  of  England. 

Lady  Holland  was  the  friend  of  Madame  de  Stael,  Georgiana 
Duchess  of  Devonshire,  Talleyrand,  Metternich,  "Junius,"  Byron, 
Moore,  Sheridan,  Brougham,  Walpole,  Canova,  Wilkie,  Macaulay 
and  Sidney  Smith  ;  in  fact,  of  all  the  great  men  of  her  time,  to 
mention  only  a  few  of  the  celebrities  who  met  at  her  hospitable 
board.  She  took  pity  on  the  imperial  bandit  who  ravaged  Europe 
a  century  ago  and  cheered  his  captivity,  both  at  Elba  and  at  St. 
Helena. 


56 


At  this  time  to  understand  Lady  Holland,  an  Englishwoman's 
kindness  to  Napoleon,  it  is  necessary  to  recall  that  the  French 
emperor,  brigand  though  he  was,  was  not  charged  with  systematic 
inhumanity ;  that  he  conducted  his  campaigns  in  accord  with  the 
accepted  law  of  nations  ;  that  he  did  not  make  war  on  women 
and  children  nor  on  unarmed  men.  At  his  death  Napoleon  sent  to 
Lady  Holland  by  the  hands  of  his  faithful  friends.  Counts  Bert- 
rand  and  Montholon,  "as  token  of  gratitude  and  esteem,"  the^gold 
snuffbox  presented  to  him  at  Tolentino  in  February,  1797,  by 
Pope  Pius  \'L 


NAPOLEON'S 
SNUFF    BOX 

Bequeathed  by  him  to  Elizabeth 
Vassall'Fox,  Lady  Holland. 
Now  in  the  British  Museum 


THE  HARVEY  FAMILY. 
Another  line  which  interested  me  was  the  Harvey  family. 
"The  Harvey  Book,"  by  Oscar  J.  Harvey,  of  Wilkesbarre,  Pa., 
is  a  model  for  genealogists.  From  it  I  learned  of  Turner  Harvey, 
the  favorite  longbowman  and  archer  of  Henry  VHL.  and  his  son, 
William  Harvev.  who  managed  to  retain  his  office  in  the  College 
of  Heralds  during  a  period  of  thirty  years,  through  all  the  dis- 
turbances of  four  Tudor  reigns,  when  the  state  religion  was 
alternately  Protestant  and  Catholic.  Henry  VHP  made  him 
Somerset'herald,  and  he  represented  Edward  \l.  "in  the  King's- 
coat"  at  the  funeral  of  Queen  Katherine  Parr.  King  Henrv  sent 
him  on  official  visits  to  the  court  of  Denmark,  to  Emperor  Charles 


57 


V.  and  to  Alaurice,  Duke  of  Saxony.  Edward  YI.  made  him 
Norroy  King  of  Arms,  and  seven  times  sent  this  trained  and 
typical  diplomatist  on  embassies  to  Germany.  It  was  he  whom 
Queen  Mary  sent  June  7,  1557,  to  declare  war  against  France, 
when  urged  thereto  by  her  husband,  Philip  II..  and  she  created 
him  Clarenceux  King  of  Arms,  which  office  he  retained  under 
Elizabeth  until  his  death.  Most  of  these  particulars  I  gathered  at 
the  College  of  Heralds  in  London,  from  "A  History  of  the  College 
of  Arms,"  published  in  1805.  William  Harvey  seems  to  have 
been  of  a  choleric  temper,  but  "his  abilities  were  considerable." 


WILLIAM  HARVEY 

1553 

From  Thane's  "Portraits  and 

Autographs  of  Royal  and 

Illustrious  Personages." 


WlIj.-THBaW. 

t'lvfn  tvt  Onf!fti7/ff7u/tiij^rfir  tn  tie  ifirQJui^ 

He  was  free  of  the  Skinners'  Company  (furriers'  guild),  and  "in 
1561  he  gave  both  a  crest  and  supporters  to  their  arms.''  In  the 
Public  Record  Office,  close  to  the  law  courts  in  the  Strand,  I 
found  grants  of  arms  to  various  families  signed  by  him,  one 
of  which,  dated  1559,  I  had  copied,  as  it  contained,  in  the  illumi- 
nated initial  letter,  a  portrait  of  my  ancestor  dressed  in  his 
herald's  coat,  or  tabard,  of  arms.  These  grants  all  begin: 
"To  all  and  singular,  etc."  It  is  little  incidents  like  this  that  make 
the  genealogical  question  so  beguiling. 

William  Harvey,  brother  of  Turner  Harvey,  the  longbowman 
of  Henry  VIII.,  who  was  so  strong  that  after  his  death  no  one 


58 


was  able  to  draw  his  bow,  had  a  famous  grandson  in  Dr.  Wihiam 
Harvey,  1578-1657,  the  discoverer  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood. 
He  left  no  descendants,  but  there  is  a  fine  statue  of  him  at  his 
birthplace,  Folkestone,  on  the  Kentish  coast.  Like  his  second 
cousin,  William  Harvey,  the  diplomatist,  he  was  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  court,  and  was  physician  to  James  I.  and  Charles  I. 
He  frequently  prosecuted  his  anatomical  experiments  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  latter  king,  whose  fortunes  he  followed  during  the 
civil  war,  being  present  at  the  battle  of  Edgehill,  and  retiring 
with  him  to   Oxford.      It   was   in   1619,   while  physician  to   St. 


J. 


--    ^ 


"ir^" 


STATUE  OF  DR.  WILLIAM  HARVEY 

in  Folkestone,  England 
The  discoverer  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood 

Bartholomew's  hospital  in  London,  that  he  made  his  great  dis- 
covery. His  adherence  to  the  royal  cause  cost  him  this  position  in 
1644,  but  he  continued  to  lecture  at  the  College  of  Physicians, 
where,  in  1652,  he  had  the  rare  honor  of  seeing  his  own  statue 
placed  in  the  college  hall.  He  enjoyed  the  intimacy  of  the  king, 
of  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  Hobbes,  Dryden,  Cowley  and  other  persons 
of  note,  and  lived  to  be  considered  the  first  anatomist  and  physi- 
cian of  his  time,  and  to  see  his  discoveries  universally  acknowl- 
edged. 

59 


The  Freemans  of  Woodbridge,  New  Jersey 

Through  the  efforts  of  Daniel  Freeman,  of  Los  Angeles, 
California,  the  Freeman  family,  of  Woodbridge,  has  been  traced 
back  in  England  to  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.,  when  John  Freeman 
lived  in  Bentley,  Northamptonshire,  in  1442.  Of  my  father's 
family  the  immigrant  ancestor  was  Judge  Henry  Freeman,  of 
Woodbridge,  whose  sister  Elizabeth  married  John  Ford  and 
settled  in  Morristown.  Her  son.  Colonel  Jacob  Ford,  Sr.,  about 
1773  built  the  house  now  known  as  "Washington's  Headquar- 


WASHINGTON'S    HEADQUARTERS   AT   MORRISTOWN,  N.  J. 

The  mother  of  Col.  Jacob  Ford,  senior,  who  built  the  house,  was  Elizabeth  Freeman, 
of  Woodbridge,  N.  J.  This  roof  sheltered  more  of  the  heroes  of  the  Revolution  than 
any  other  in  America. 

ters,"  in  that  town,  and  her  grandson.  Colonel  Jacob  Ford,  Jr., 
about  1768,  built  the  stone  house  at  Mount  Hope,  N.  J. 

It  was  in  the  house  at  Mount  Hope  that  Elizabeth  Freeman 
spent  the  last  four  years  of  her  life,  dying  there  April  21,  1772. 
aged  91  years  and  1  month.  Her  great-grandson.  Judge  Gabriel 
H.  Ford,  kept  a  diary.  Shortly  before  his  death,  in  his  eighty-fifth 
year,  under  date  of  June  21.  1849,  he  wrote  that  he  was  seven 
years  old  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  his  great-grandmother, 
"whose  short  stature  and  slender,  bent  person  I  clearly  recall, 
having  lived  in  the  same  house  with  licr."     From  her,  he  says, 


60 


the  Ford  family  learned  that  her  father  fled  from  England  to 
avoid  persecution.  This  confirms  the  tradition  of  the  Freeman 
family  that  he  was  a  Quaker.  According  to  the  census  record  of 
1772,  Elizabeth  Freeman  "came  into  Philadelphia  when  there  was 
but  one  house  in  it.  and  into  this  province  (East  Jersey),  when 
she  was  but  one  year  and  a  half  old."  Judge  Ford  says  that 
"while  landing  his  goods  her  father  fell  from  a  plank  into  the 
Delaware  river  and  was  drowned  between  the  ship  and  the  shore, 
leaving  a  family  of  young  children  in  the  wilderness."  The 
Freemans  of   Woodbridge  made  their  advent   in   America  with 


STONE  MANSION  AT  MOUNT  HOPE,  N.  }. 

Built  by  the  Ford  family  before  they  erected  the  house  in  Morristown  known  as 
Washington's  Headquarters.  Here  is  the  Elizabeth  Mine,  named  for  Elizabeth  Free- 
man, of  Woodbridge,  which  supplied  the  iron  for  the  cannon  and  cannon-balls  used 
by  Washington's  army. 


this  dire  misfortune  in  1682,  the  same  year  in  which  William 
Penn  made  his  first  voyage  to  America,  and  close  to  the  same  date. 
These  facts  are  taken  from  "The  Record"  for  March,  1880,  pub- 
lished by  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Morristown,  of  which 
Judge  Ford's  grandfather,  Rev.  Timothy  Johnes,  was  pastor  from 
1743  to  1794,  covering  the  whole  revolutionary  period.  He  is 
said  to  have  administered  communion  to  Washington.  His  daugh- 
ter, Theodosia  Ford,  widowed  early  in  1777  with  five  young 
children,  offered  to  Washington  the  hospitality  of  her  home,  and 
he  made  it  his  headquarters   from  December   1.   1779.  to  June, 


61 


1780.  Among  those  who  met  at  the  Ford  house  at  this  period 
were  Hamilton,  Schuyler,  Stirling,  Greene,  Knox,  Harry  Lee, 
John  Stark,  Israel  Putnam,  Anthony  Wayne,  Benedict  Arnold, 
Steuben.  Duportail.  Pulaski,  De  Kalb,  Kosciusko  and  Lafayette. 

THE  FREEAL\N  BOHGRANT  ANCESTOR. 
Judge  Freeman  was  sturdy  in  his  assertion  of  the  rights  of 
the  colonists  against  the  encroachments  of  the  royal  governors, 
who,  nevertheless,  recognized  his  worth  by  long-continued  ap- 
pointment, as  one  of  the  six  judges  of  the  court  of  common  pleas 
of  ]^Iiddlesex  county.  He  lived  considerably  past  ninety  years, 
and  was  buried  in  1763  in  the  Presbyterian  churchyard  at  Wood- 
bridge,  where  his  tombstone  stands  amidst  the  graves  of  several 
generations  of  his  descendants. 


TOMBSTONE  OF  JUDGE  HENRY  FREEMAN 

and  his  wife,  ELIZABETH  BONUE 

Presbyterian  Churchyard,  Woodbridge,  New  Jersey 

The  inscri])tion  on  this  tombstone  of  Henry  Freeman  the 
Immigrant,  stating  that  he  died  October  10,  176v3.  in  the  94th 
year  of  his  age,  does  not  agree  with  the  statement  in  Daniel 
Freeman's  "Genealogy"  that  he  was  born  August  7,  1672.  This 
birth  date  Mr.  Freeman  copied  from  St.  Sepulchre's  Records  in 
London,  England,  where  he  also  found  the  birth  date,  July  12, 
1670,  of  his  own  ancestor,  h'dward  Freeman,  brother  of  Henry 
and  Elizabeth.  Perhaps  sonic  future  student  of  family  history 
will  clear  up  this  discrepancy. 

62 


Daniel  Freeman  gives  the  birth  date  of  Joseph  Freeman  (who 
was  drowned  in  the  Delaware  River  in  1682)  as  October  2,  1639, 
and  his  marriage  to  Elizabeth  Gosse  (born  1636)  on  March  14, 
1666,  in  the  parish  of  St.  Botolph's,  Bishopsgate,  London.  He 
carries  the  line  back  to  William  Freeman  (father  of  Joseph),  who 
was  baptized  January  14,  1592,  at  St.  Mary  at  Hill;  married 
Mary  Orell  November  3,  1638,  and  died  at  Betchworth  in  Surrey 
May  27,  1657 ;  to  William's  father,  Martyn  Freeman,  also  of 
Betchworth,  who  married  Elizabeth  Lawrence,  daughter  of 
Matthew  Lawrence,  and  grand-daughter  of  Sir  Oliver  Lawrence, 
Knight,  who  quartered  his  arms  with  those  of  the  Washington 
family ;  to  Martyn's  father,  Edward  Freeman,  who  married  Eliza- 
beth Maush ;  to  Edward's  father,  Henry  Freeman,  of  Wallgrave, 
Northamptonshire,  who  married  Mary  Wintershall ;  to  Henry's 
father,  Lawrence  Freeman,  who  lived  at  Bentley  and  Wallgrave 
in  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  and  married  Anne  Frebodye,  daughter 
of  Thomas  Frebodye,  of  Northamptonshire ;  and,  finally,  to  Law- 
rence's father,  John  Freeman,  mentioned  above  as  living  in 
Henry  VI. 's  time.  Under  date  of  November  27,  1662,  Evelyn 
writes  in  his  Diary :  "Dined  with  old  Sir  Ralph  Freeman,  Master 
of  the  Mint."  This  was  the  eldest  son  of  Martyn  Freeman.  Mr. 
Freeman  relates  many  interesting  incidents  of  family  history  and 
his  book  is  beautifully  illustrated  in  colors  with  the  armorial 
bearings  of  the  Isham  family  (the  first  John  Freeman's  wife 
being  of  that  lineage)  and  those  of  the  Frebodye,  Wintershall, 
Lawrence  and  Washington  families,  as  well  as  the  variations  and 
quarterings  used  by  different  members  of  the  Freeman  family. 
He  also  includes  a  still  older  brother  of  Edward,  Henry  and 
Elizabeth,  named  John  Freeman,  born  in  1669,  and  married  at 
St.  Botolph's  in  London  on  October  3,  1693,  to  Mrs.  Mary 
Dockra,  of  St.  Helen's  Parish.  This  John  Freeman  appears  to 
have  been  in  America  at  Woodbridge,  N.  J.,  in  1710,  but  subse- 
quently returned  to  England,  where  his  second  marriage  in  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral  is  recorded  on  January  14.  1743,  to  Hester 
Coleman. 

In  our  home  in  East  Orange  we  have  an  interesting 
souvenir  of  Judge  Henry  Freeman  in  his  beautiful  mahogany  hall 
clock,  which  marks  the  hours  to-day  as  deliberately  and  cheerily 
as  it  did  in  his  lifetime.  Above  the  dial  is  a  painting  on  brass  of 
a  sea-fight  in  which  the  conquering  frigate  flies  the  Union  Jack  of 
Great  Britain,  while  the  other  man-of-war  shows  the  white  flag 

6Z 


of  surrender.  Engraved  on  a  brass  plate  attached  to  the  face  of 
the  dial  is  the  name  "Moses  Ogden,"  presumably  the  maker  of 
this  venerable  time-piece,  which  has  been  passed  down  through 
seven  generations  of  Henry  Freeman's  descendants. 

Henry  Freeman,  1717-1784.  son  of  Judge  Freeman,  married 
Mary  Read,  whose  brother,  Rev.  Israel  Read,  was  graduated  in 
the   first   class    from   Princeton   College   in    1748,   with   Richard 


^P^ 


V, 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  WOODBRIDGE,  N.  ]. 
Built  by  loel  Freeman   in    1803.     Replaced  the  first  church  erected  in    1675.     The 
original  large  shingles  and  hand-wrought  nails  may  still  be  seen  on  the  outer  walls. 
During  240  years  this  congregation  has  worshipped  in  only  the  two  structures. 

Stockton,  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Israel  Read 
was  the  first  regularly  installed  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  church 
at  Bound  Brook;  subsequently  was  in  cliarge  of  the  church  at 
New  Brunswick,  and  for  over  thirty  years  was  a  trustee  of 
Princeton  College. 

64 


The  next  in  line,  Israel  Freeman,  named  for  his  uncle,  Rev. 
Israel  Read,  was  born  in  1742,  and  became  a  soldier  in  the 
revolution.  He  married  Louisa  Miller  and  settled  at  Pray  Hill, 
near  Richfield  Springs,  N.  Y.  We  have  a  graceful  pair  of  sugar- 
tongs  which  belonged  to  the  wife  of  Israel  Freeman,  marked  with 
her  initials,  "L.  M." 

Israel  Freeman's  son,  Joel  Freeman,  1770-1835,  in  1803  built 
the  Presbyterian  church  still  standing  in  Woodbridge.  This  was 
during  the  fifty-two-year  pastorate  of  Rev.  Azel  Roe,  the  patriot 
preacher  who  was  confined  in  the  Sugar  House  prison  in  New 
York  during  the  revolution. 


FRANCES  MARIA  ABBEY 

Widow  of  Joel  Francis  Freeman  and  donor  of  the  Abbey 
Memorial.  From  the  statuette  by  Enid  Yandell,  sculptor. 
The  donor  and  all  of  her  four  children  were  born  in  the 
Western  Reserve  of  Connecticut  in  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Alexander  Freeman,  1807-1839,  son  of  Joel  Freeman,  mar- 
ried Hannah  jNIaria  Low.  a  member  of  the  Dutch  familv  on  whose 
land  Vassar  College  now  stands,  and  a  descendant  of  the  Mott, 
Fort  and  Pell  families.  These  were  the  parents  of  Joel  Francis 
Freeman,  1836-1910,  of  East  Orange,  N.  J.,  who  married  Frances 
Maria  Abbey,  daughter  of  Judge  Seth  Alden  Abbey,  and  donor 
of  the  Abbey  Memorial  in  Enfield. 

65 


Lieutenant  Edgar  Freeman,  U.  S.  N. 

Lieutenant  Edgar  Freeman.  1789-1871.  son  of  Israel  Free- 
man's youngest  brother,  Henry  Freeman.  3d,  had  an  eventful 
career.  In  1811,  when  twenty-two,  he  entered  the  United  States 
Navv  as  a  midshipman.  The  same  year  he  was  assigned  to  the 
"Hornet,"  under  command  of  the  famous  Captain  Lawrence. 
The  following  year  he  was  transferred  to  the  "Nautilus,"  w^iich 
was  the  first  American  man-of-war  captured  by  the  British  in 
the  war  of   1812.     After  a  long  chase  by  a  squadron   of   four 


LIEUT.  EDGAR  FREEMAN,  U.  S.  N. 

Who  received  a  vote  of  thanks  from  Congress  for  heroism  in  the  shipwreck  of  the 
"Chippewa."     From  the  miniature  by  Frank  Potter. 

frigates  and  a  ship  of  the  line,  the  "Nautilus''  was  taken  on  July 
16,  1812.  Midshipman  Freeman  was  made  a  prisoner  of  war  and 
taken  with  the  others  to  Halifax,  but  all  were  soon  exchanged. 
He'  was  then  ordered  to  join  Commodore  Chauncey  at  Sackett's 
Harbor.  N.  Y..  with  a  draft  of  men.  In  passing  through  the 
Highlands  of  the  Hvidson  the  vessel  was  struck  by  a  squall  and 
capsized,  all  hands  being  thrown  overboard   except   five  in  the 


66 


forecastle,  who  were  drowned.  The  inquest  was  held  in  New- 
burgh,  and  young  Freeman  then  proceeded  to  Sackett's  Harbor 
with  the  balance  of  the  draft.  He  took  part  in  the  capture  of 
Little  York  (now  Toronto),  and  was  in  other  engagements  on 
Lake  Ontario  imtil  the  end  of  the  war. 

Among  his  mates  while  a  midshipman  was  a  lad  of  distin- 
guished Spanish  ancestry,  whose  father,  like  Lafayette,  had 
volunteered  in  the  cause  of  American  independence,  and  is  said  to 
have  saved  the  life  of  Washington  at  the  battle  of  Cowpens. 
The  boy  was  twelve  years  younger  than  Midshipman  Freeman, 
who  used  to  write  his  letters  home  for  him.  This  lad  became  the 
celebrated  Admiral  Farragut  of  the  Civil  War,  of  whom  Joseph 
H.  Choate  said  at  the  unveiling  of  his  statue  by  St.  Gaudens  in 
Madison  Square,  New  York,  that  "it  was  reserved  for  Farragut, 
as  he  was  bearing  down  upon  the  death-dealing  batteries  of  the 
rebels  at  Mobile,  to  hoist  nothing  less  than  himself  into  the  rigging 
of  his  flagship,  as  the  living  signal  of  duty  done,  that  the  world 
might  see  that  what  England  had  only  expected  America  had 
fully  realized,  and  that  every  man,  from  the  rear-admiral  down, 
was  faithful.  Farragut  learned  from  his  cradle  that  the  first  and 
last  duty  of  an  American  is  to  his  country ;  that  to  live  for  her 
is  honor,  and  to  die  for  her  is  glory." 

I  have  a  manuscript  of  Lieutenant  Freeman  in  which  he 
narrates  the  chief  events  of  his  naval  career.  He  particularly 
describes  the  cruise  of  the  "Independence"  in  the  Mediterranean 
after  the  war  of  1812.  At  Genoa  Commodore  Bainbridge  and  the 
other  officers  entertained  Lord  Byron,  who  showed  much  gratifi- 
cation on  finding  many  copies  of  his  poems  in  the  ship's  cabin. 
At  Malaga  they  were  "most  sumptuously  entertained  by  our  most 
worthy  consul,  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  his  amiable  lady  and  two  accom- 
plished daughters,  one  of  them  now  the  mother  of  Eugenie,  the 
present  Empress  of  France."  I  have  also  his  commission  as 
lieutenant,  received  while  master  of  the  frigate  "Congress."  It 
is  signed  by  President  Monroe  and  dated  March  5.  1817. 

When  the  "Chippewa"  was  wrecked  on  a  sunken  rock  in  the 
Caycos  Islands,  in  the  Bahamas,  in  1817,  Lieutenant  Freeman, 
in  the  darkness  of  night,  safely  landed  all  his  crew  on  a  desert 
island,  three  miles  to  the  south.  They  were  without  food  or  water. 
Commodore  Reed  proposed  that  the  lieutenant  return  for  pro- 
visions, if  he  could  get  men  to  volunteer.  He  could  get  but  five  to 
go.    They  boarded  the  wreck  in  a  fearful  sea  and  secured  sufficient 

67 


food  and  water  to  keep  all  alive  until  they  were  rescued  and  taken 
to  Turk's  Island.  In  this  undertaking  Lieutenant  Freeman  was 
so  severely  injured  that  he  had  to  remain  for  three  months  with 
the  governor  of  the  island  before  he  was  sufficiently  recovered  to 
be  removed.  For  the  injuries  received  and  meritorious  conduct 
he  received  a  vote  of  thanks  from  Congress  and  a  pension  for  life. 

His  next  service  was  on  the  "Saranac,"  sent  to  break  up  the 
slave  trade.  Seven  slavers  were  captured.  After  this  the  "Sara- 
nac" touched  at  Fernandina,  then  a  piratical  rendezvous,  captured 
the  fort  with  the  assistance  of  Colonel  Bankhard's  troops  from 
Point  Piter,  up  the  St.  Mary's  river,  and  left  the  colonel  in  charge. 
After  a  cruise  of  eighteen  months  the  "Saranac"  returned  to  New 
York,  and  Lieutenant  Freeman  was  assigned  to  duty  under  Com- 
modore Deacon  on  Lake  Erie.  While  in  charge  of  the  navy  yard 
at  Erie  he  and  his  fellow  officers  entertained  Commodore  Perry 
and  General  Lafayette. 

Edgar  Freeman  retired  from  the  navy  in  1828  and  returned 
to  his  birthplace,  \\'oodbridge,  N.  J.,  and  for  three  successive 
terms  of  five  years  each  was  appointed  county  judge  of  Middlesex 
county.  I  was  invited  to  represent  his  service  in  the  war  of  1812 
in  the  Veteran  Corps  of  Artillery,  which  is  the  oldest  military 
organization  in  New  York  State,  with  a  membership  based  on 
the  services  of  ancestors  like  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati. 


The  Order  of  the  Military  Society  of  the  War  of  1812 


68 


''Lost  Causes''  in  American  History 

Through  the  perspective  of  years  one  gets  a  more  correct 
picture  of  events  than  at  the  time  they  occurred.  In  the  passage 
of  time  passions  cool  and  it  is  possible  to  see  both  sides  of  a 
conflict  in  a  less  vivid  but  truer  light  than  was  possible  to  the 
combatants  themselves.  It  is  for  these  reasons,  as  well  as  to 
give  balance  and  variety  to  this  narrative  of  a  family,  that  along 
with  the  causes  which  were  successful  have  been  included  those 
which  failed,  and  these  "Lost  Causes"  are  illustrated  in  several 
of  the  seals. 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  INDIANS. 

For  example,  the  portrait  of  King  Philip  commemorates  a 
native  American  who  endured  the  encroachments  of  the  white 
settlers  until  goaded  to  desperation.  After  two  centuries  had 
elapsed  historians  perceived  that  this  Indian  chief  was  in  reality 
a  patriot  like  the  Belgians  of  today,  contending  for  the  inde- 
pendence of  his  country,  a  great  ruler  and,  like  the  King  of  the 
Belgians,  a  valiant  leader  in  war.  In  his  summons  to  the 
aboriginal  lords  of  New  England,  Pometacon,  as  the  chief  of  the 
Wampanoags  was  called  in  the  Indian  tongue,  put  the  case  of 
the  Indian  in  these  words : 

"The   English   who   came   first  to   this  country  were  but  a 
handful   of    people,    forlorn,    poor   and   distressed.      My    father, 
Massasoit,  did  all  in  his  power  to  serve  them.     Their  numbers 
increased.     My  father's  councilors  were  alarmed.     They  urged 
him  to  destroy  the  English  before  they  became  strong  enough 
to  give  law  to  the  Indians  and  take  away  their  country.     My 
father  was  also  the  father  to  the  English.     We  remained  their 
friend.     Experience  shows  that  his  councilors  were  right.     The 
English   disarmed  my  people.     They  tried  them  by  their  laws 
and  assessed  damages  my  people  could  not  pay.     Sometimes  the 
cattle  of  the  English  would  come  into  the  cornfields  of  my  people, 
for  they  did  not  make  fences  like  the  English.     I  must  then  be 
seized  and  confined  till  I  sold  another  tract  of  my  country  for 
damages  and  costs.    Thus  tract  after  tract  is  gone.    But  a  small 
part  of  the  dominion  of  my  ancestors  remains.    I  am  determmed 
not  to  live  until  I  have  no  country." 

Miles  Morgan  gallantly  defended  Springfield  against  the  on- 
slaught of  King  Philip  on  October  5.  1675,  and  the  first  Thomas 
Abbey  was  wounded  in  the  great  fight  in  the  Narragansett  swamp 

69 


on  December  19  of  the  same  year.  The  capture  of  this  fort, 
where  the  Indians  made  their  last  stand,  finally  destroyed  their 
power  in  New  England. 

THE  VASSALL  FAMILY. 

The  Vassall  coat  of  arms  commemorates  a  distinguished 
colonial  family  which  was  unflinchingly  loyal  to  the  British  crown 
during  the  American  Revohition.  The  seven  mansions  still  stand- 
ing in  Brattle  street,  Cambridge,  known  as  "Tory  Row,"  which 
include  the  home  of  the  poet  Longfellow  and  "Elmwood,"  the 
birthplace  of  James  Russell  Lowell,  were  in  1774  the  homes  of 
the  A'assall  family. 

In  that  year  the  Vassalls  altered  their  family  motto  from 
Sacpc  pro  rcgc,  semper  pro  repiihUca,  which  they  had  splendidly 
exemplified  against  Charles  I.  in  the  English  Civil  War,  to  Semper 
pro  rege,  and  proceeded  just  as  gallantly  to  live  up  to  the  revised 
version.  In  consequence  the  entire  family  was  exiled  and  their 
estates  confiscated.  After  their  return  to  England  in  1776 
members  of  the  family  distinguished  themselves  in  the  British 
army  and  navy. 

Colonel  Spencer  Vassall  was  mortally  wounded  in  South 
America  while  charging  at  the  head  of  his  regiment  at  the  storm- 
ing of  Montevideo  in  Uruguay,  when  it  was  captured  by  the 
British  in  1807.  His  bravery  is  commemorated  by  a  monument 
in  St.  Paul's  Church  in  Bristol,  England,  and  by  the  augmented 
arms  granted  to  his  son.  Sir  Spencer  Lambert  Vassall,  captain  in 
the  Royal  Navy,  who  was  knighted  in  1838.  This  augmentation 
shows  the  breached  bastion  of  a  fortress  with  the  words  "Monte 
Video"  and  a  new  motto,  "Every  bullet  has  its  billet,"  recording 
the  heroic  death  of  his  father.  Colonel  Spencer  Vassall  was  the 
son  of  Colonel  John  Vassall,  1738-1797,  who,  in  the  summer  of 
1774,  was  driven  by  a  mob  from  his  Cambridge  home.  In  less 
than  a  year  the  house  was  occupied  by  General  Washington  as 
his  military  headquarters. 

THE  VASSALLS  AND  THE  WASHINGTONS. 
A  curious  comparison  may  be  made  between  the  \'assall  and 
Washington  families.  From  evidence  now  available  it  appears 
that  the  Washingtons,  prior  to  coming  to  America,  werp  rovalists 
in  every  branch,  with  no  sympathy  for  Cromwell  and  his  ad- 
herents; while  in  America,  on  the  contrary,  they  furnished  the 
head  and   front  of  the  greatest  and  most  successful   revolution 

70 


.~*»i^'-' 


"ELMWOOD,"  CAMBRIDGE,  MASS. 
The  home  of  Thomas  Oliver,  last  royal  lieutenant-governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, whose  wife  was  Elizabeth  Vassall,  sister  to  Col.  John  Vassall, 
who  in  turn  married  Elizabeth  Oliver,  sister  to  the  lieutenant-governor. 


LONGFELLOW  HOUSE  AT  CAMBRIDGE.  MASS. 

Washington's  Headquarters  at  Cambridge,  Mass.     "The  tent  of  Mars 

and  the  home  of  Muses."     Built  by  Col.  John  Vassall  in  1759. 


71 


against  the  authority  of  the  British  crown  in  George  Washington, 
a  man  of  wealth  and  social  standing  in  the  colonies  second  only 
to  Charles  Carroll,  of  Carrollton. 

The  \'assall  family,  on  the  other  hand,  furnished  the  pioneer 
revolutionist  of  wealth  against  the  authority  of  King  Charles. 
Samuel  X'assall  was  probably  the  largest  ship-owner  of  his  day 
and  was  the  first  \vho  refused  to  pay  the  tax  of  tonnage  and 
poundage.  As  a  result,  his  property  was  seized  and  he  himself 
thrown  into  prison  for  sixteen  years  by  the  Star  Chamber  Court. 
In  1641  the  Long  Parliament  voted  him  over  ten  thousand  pounds 
damages  and  resolved  that  he  should  be  further  recompensed  for 
his  personal  suffering,  but  this  was  never  paid.  Notwithstanding, 
when  the  Parliamentary  Party  was  in  its  greatest  straits  during 
the  Civil  War,  this  dauntless  man  repeatedly  loaned  sums  of 
money  to  Parliament  and  also  placed  his  ships  at  its  disposal, 
among  those  thus  employed  being  the  famous  "Mayflower."  Later, 
when  the  Commonwealth  was  established,  he  headed  a  subscrip- 
tion list  with  £1,200  to  carry  on  the  war  in  Ireland. 

This  bold  and  self-reliant  man  never  came  to  America,  al- 
though he  w^as  interested  in  the  launching  of  the  Rhode  Island 
Colony,  being  associated  in  that  enterprise  with  Oliver  Cromwell, 
Sir  Harry  Vane  and  other  fellow  members  of  Parliament.  He 
and  his  brother  William  were  both  named  as  assistants  to  the 
governor  in  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  and  William 
Vassall,  w^ho  was  our  ancestor,  came  to  Boston  with  Governor 
Winthrop  in  the  "Arabella."  Like  all  of  the  name,  William 
Vassall,  1592-1655,  was  devotedly  attached  to  the  Episcopal 
church.  He  settled  in  Scituate,  but  in  1634,  provoked  by  the 
persecution  to  which  the  Episcopalians  w^ere  subjected,  he  returned 
to  England.  Later  he  went  to  Barbadoes  and  died  there.  His 
son.  Captain  John  Vassall,  sold  the  Scituate  estate  in  1661,  but 
the  daughters  married  and  remained  in  this  country.  Our  an- 
cestress, Frances  \'assall,  born  in  England  in  1623,  married  James 
Adams,  of  Scituate,  son  of  John  Adams  of  the  "Fortune,"  July 
16,  1646.  Savage  states  that,  as  the  daughter  of  an  original 
patentee  who  had  probably  received  nothing  for  his  money 
advanced  to  the  colony,  she  received  from  the  General  Court  in 
1672  a  grant  of  150  acres.  She  was  the  mother  of  Margaret 
Adams,  1654-1737,  who  married  John  Pease,  the  founder  of 
Enfield,  and  became  the  mother  of  the  first  child  born  here. 

In  King's  Chapel,  Boston,  stands  the  quaint  baroque  monu- 
ment of  Samuel  Vassall,  which  was  erected  in  1766  by  his  great- 

n 


VASSALL    MONUMENT    IN   KING'S   CHAPEL,  BOSTON 
On  entering  the  church  this  monument  stands  on  the  left  against  the 
rear  wall.     The  head  of  Samuel  Vassall  is  turned  toward  the  monu- 
ment of  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 


73 


grandson,  Florentius  \'assall,  of  the  Island  of  Jamaica,  whose 
granddaughter  and  heiress  was  the  celebrated  Lady  Holland,  for 
over  forty  years  the  mistress  of  Holland  House  in  London.  The 
monument  is  constructed  of  colored  marbles  and  adorned  with 
a  bust  and  the  arms  of  the  Vassall  family,  granted  by  Queen 
Elizabeth  to  John  Vassall,  father  of  Samuel  and  William,  on 
account  of  his  services  against  the  Spanish  x^rmada. 

HOMES  OF  THE  COLONL\L  DAYS. 

Samuel's  son,  John  Vassall,  settled  in  Jamaica  in  the  West 
Indies,  but  the  latter's  son,  Major  Leonard  Vassall,  lived  in 
Boston,  where,  in  1727,  he  built  a  beautiful  home  in  Summer 
street.  This  was  the  famous  "Wayte  Garden."  fully  described 
in  the  New  England  Genealogical  and  Historical  Register  for 
January,  187L  in  an  interesting  article  of  fifteen  pages  under  the 
title  "A  Home  of  the  Olden  Time."'  The  site  is  mentioned  as 
"the  garden  of  Gamaliel  Wayte"  in  the  Boston  "Book  of  Posses- 
sions,'' which  resembles  the  Domesday  Book  in  England.  The 
house  had  a  frontage  of  over  100  feet,  with  nine  windows  and  two 
doors  below  and  eleven  windows  above.  It  stood  three  stories 
toward  the  street  and  had  luthern  or  dormer  windows  in  a 
gambrel  roof.  The  ceilings  were  lofty  and  it  had  a  richly  wrought 
mahogany  staircase  leading  to  the  third  floor.  The  mahogany 
was  brought  from  the  Vassall  estates  in  Jamaica.  At  about  the 
same  period  Leonard  Vassall  also  built  for  himself  a  summer 
home  at  Braintree  (now  Quincy),  in  which  the  parlor  is  paneled 
in  mahogany  from  the  same  West  Indian  forests.  Later  this 
house  became  the  home  of  the  Adams  family  which  gave  two 
presidents  to  the  United  States. 

Leonard  Vassall's  Boston  home  had  a  garden  vista  300  feet 
long.  A  poet  of  the  period  speaks  of  the  "baronial  courtyard," 
paved  with  blue  and  white  stones  in  a  fanciful  pattern,  the  flower 
beds  edged  with  box  and  the  luxuriant  growth  of  roses,  syringa, 
honeysuckle  and  snowdrops,  the  octagon  summer  house  at  the 
far  end  of  the  garden,  and  a  series  of  six  arcades  filled  with 
panel  work  to  correspond  with  the  facade  of  the  great  stable. 
These  details  are  interesting  as  illustrating  the  comfort  and  even 
luxury  which  our  forefathers  provided  for  themselves  within  a 
century  after  the  first  settlements  were  made  in  Xcw  England. 
This  house  was  a  typical,  but  not  exceptional.  New  England  home 
of  the  period.    We  are  more  apt  to  associate  such  a  mode  of  living 

74 


THE   ROYALL  SUMMER  HOUSE 

in  which  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was  planned 

(See  page  76) 


ROYALL  HOUSE  AT  MEDFORD,  MASS. 
The  building  at  the  left  is  the  slave  quarters,  said  to  be  the  only  slave  quarters  still 
standing  in  New  England.  The  faint  oudine  on  the  end  wall  of  the  Royall  house 
is  the  gable  end  of  the  older  Winthrop  farmhouse,  built  in  1631  and  said  to  be  the 
oldest  portion  of  any  house  now  standing  in  America,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
the  shell  and  adobe  houses  of  Florida  and  California.  These  particulars  were 
gathered  from  an  interesting  book  issued  gratis  by  the  White  Pine  Bureau  of  St. 
Paul,  Minnesota. 

75 


with  \'irginia  than  with  New  England.  While  many  of  the  more 
substantial  families  of  Virginia  embraced  the  patriot  cause,  the 
chief  proprietors  of  New  England  remained  loyalists.  Of  course, 
the  "Wayte  Garden"  house  has  long  since  disappeared,  but  the 
Vassall  houses  in  Cambridge  and  Quincy  are  still  standing,  as 
well  as  the  Royall  house  in  Medford.  This  was  built  in  1732  by 
Isaac  Royall,  whose  daughter  Penelope  in  1742  married  Colonel 
Henry  \'assall,  a  son  of  Leonard  Vassall. 

On  a  knoll  at  the  rear  of  the  Royall  house  stood  a  summer 
house  of  great  historical  interest.  Within  its  walls  General  John 
Stark,  who  made  the  Royall  mansion  his  headquarters  during 
the  siege  of  Boston,  together  with  General  Lee,  General  Sullivan 
and  others,  planned  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  Later  Washington 
held  councils  here  with  his  generals.  It  had  previously  been  a 
favorite  trysting  place  with  the  British  ofificers.  and  many  ro- 
mances are  connected  with  it.  It  was  here  that  Henry  Vassall 
wooed  Penelope  Royall  and  Sir  William  Pepperell  here  won 
Elizabeth  Royall. 

Further  particulars  of  the  \'assall  family  may  be  found  in 
another  article  in  the  New  England  Historical  and  Genealogical 
Register,  volume  XMI..  page  56,  entitled  "The  Vassalls  of  New 
England,"  by  Edward  Doubleday  Harris.  Leonard  Vassall  had 
seventeen  children  by  his  first  wife,  Ruth  Gale,  of  Jamaica;  by 
his  second  wife,  Phebe  Gross,  he  had  one  daughter.  In  1730  he 
became  instrumental  in  the  founding  of  Trinity  Church  in  Boston, 
the  original  edifice  being  located  opposite  his  Summer  street  home. 
His  son.  Colonel  John  \'assall.  married  in  1734  Elizabeth  Phips, 
daughter  of  Lieutenant-Governor  Spencer  Phips  and  granddaugh- 
ter of  the  celebrated  Sir  William  Phips,  conqueror  of  Port  Royal 
and  governor  of  Massachusetts.  Colonel  Vassall  lived  for  a  time 
nearly  opposite  the  present  Longfellow  house  in  Brattle  street, 
Cambridge,  in  the  Belcher  or  Batchelder  house,  which  he  sold  to 
his  brother  Henry  in  1741.  The  elder  brother.  Colonel  John 
Vassall,  erected  a  monument  in  the  graveyard  of  Christ  Church 
in  Cambridge,  opposite  the  Harvard  campus.  Through  the  courtesy 
of  a  descendant  of  the  Vassall  family,  Mrs.  Cora  E.  Morgan,  of 
I>uffalo,  N.  Y.  (who  is  also  a  descendant  of  Abigail  Abbev  Phelps, 
the  niece  of  Captain  Abbey,  and  wife  of  John  Ward,  who 
marched  to  Boston  with  the  Enfield  company),  I  am  able  to  show 
a  photograph  of  his  tomb,  now  falling  into  decay  after  standing 
for  170  years.  The  massive  freestone  slab  is  inscribed  with  the 
Vassall  arms  and  rests  on  five  columns.     Here  Colonel  Vassall 

76 


was  buried  in  1747.  He  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1732;  his 
brother  Lewis  in  1728,  and  William  in  1733.  It  was  the  last- 
named  brother  who  protested  by  proxy  against  the  ordination  of 
Rev.  Jarnes  Freeman  (grandfather  of  James  Freeman  Clarke) 
in  King's  Chapel  in  1785,  and  also  against  the  change  in  the 
liturgy  from  the  Episcopal  to  the  Unitarian  rite.  His  youngest 
son,  Nathaniel,  became  a  captain  in  the  British  navy.  There  were 
four  other  Vassalls  graduated  at  Harvard,  one  of  whom  was  the 
son  of  the  Colonel  Vassall  buried  in  this  tomb.  This  second 
Colonel  John  Vassall  was  born  in  1738,  married  Elizabeth  Oliver, 


TOMB  OF 

COLONEL 

lOHN   VASSALL 

1713-1747 

In  Christ  Churchyard 
Cambridge,  Mass. 


sister  of  the  last  royal  lieutenant-governor  of  Massachusetts,  was 
exiled  in  1776,  as  already  related,  and,  although  his  estates  in 
Massachusetts  were  confiscated,  lived  in  comfort  on  the  revenues 
from  his  Jamaica  estates  until  his  death  at  Clifton,  England,  in 
1797. 

Leonard  Vassall,  of  the  "Wayte  Garden"  house,  had  a  brother 
William  born  in  Jamaica.  William's  son  was  Florentius  Vassall, 
1710-1779,  who  in  1766  erected  the  monument  to  his  great-grand- 
father, Samuel  Vassall.  in  King's  Chapel,  Boston.  His  son, 
Richard  Vassall,  1731-2-1795,  married  Mary  Clark,  daughter  of 


n 


Thomas  Clark,  of  New  York.  They  had  one  child,  Elizabeth 
V^assall,  1770-1845,  whose  second  husband  was  Lord  Holland, 
the  English  statesman.  Mrs.  Richard  \'assall,  after  the  death  of 
her  husband,  married  Sir  Gilbert  Affleck,  second  baronet,  of 
Dalham  Hall,  Sufifolk,  and  died  in  1836,  aged  86. 


Reception  of  the  American  Loyalists  by  Great 

Britain  in  1783 


From  the  painting  by  Benjamin  West.  At  the  head  of  the  loyalists 
stands  Sir  William  Pepperell,  Baronet,  grandson  of  the  conqueror  of 
Loui-sburg,  upon  whom  was  conferred  the  only  l)aronetcy  ever  granted 
to  a  native  of  Xew  England.  Next  to  Pepperell  stands  William  Franklin, 
last  royal  governor  of  Xew  Jersey  and  son  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  At 
the  right  hand  stands  the  artist,  who  succeeded  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  as 
president  of  the  Royal  Academy,  together  with  his  wife,  both  natives  of 
Pennsylvania.  It  is  gratifying  to  Americans  to  know  that  Benjamin  West 
declined  the  knighthood   whicli  was  offered  him  by  George  III. 

78 


THE  PATRIOT  WAR  IN  CANADA. 

[From    Captain    Daniel   D.  Heustis's  "  Narrative   of   Adventures  and  Sufferings," 

published  in  1848.] 

Colonel  Von  Shoultz,  who  was  a  Polish  nobleman  already 
distinguished  for  military  ability  in  the  revolution  against  Russia 
in  his  native  land,  Colonel  Abbey  and  the  nine  other  Americans 
who  were  hanged  at  Kingston,  were  probably  fortunate  to  die 
when  and  as  they  did,  in  view  of  the  long-drawn-out  misery  of  the 
survivors  of  the  court  martial.  Of  the  182  men  who  defended 
the  windmill,  17  were  killed  in  the  fight,  3  died  later  of  their 
wounds,  5  escaped  before  the  surrender,  11  as  stated  were 
hanged,  64  were  pardoned  after  trial,  22  were  discharged  without 
trial,  and  60  were  transported  to  Van  Diemen's  Land  (now  Tas- 
mania), together  with  18  other  prisoners  taken  at  the  battle 
fought  at  Windsor,  opposite  Detroit.  Captain  Heustis  says  these 
unfortunates  were  140  days  on  the  convict  ship  "BuiTalo,"  and 
that  their  sufferings  were  such  that  they  planned  a  mutiny,  which, 
being  discovered,  their  last  state,  confined  between  decks  in  the 
tropics,  was  worse  than  the  first.  The  wretched  survivors,  on 
arrival  in  the  penal  settlement,  were  put  to  work  on  the  roads 
for  two  years  and  then  became  ticket-of-leave  men.  On  January 
1,  1845,  after  six  years  of  misery.  Captain  Heustis  received  his 
pardon. 

Of  Dorrephus  Abbey's  last  days  Captain  Heustis  writes  as 
follows:  "I  had  been  in  the  room  with  Colonel  Abbey.  Three 
or  four  days  before  his  murder,  the  sheriff  came  in  and  told  him 
he  had  received  orders  for  his  execution,  and  wished  him  to  get 
ready  to  remove  to  the  cell  of  the  condemned  immediately.  He 
received  the  intelligence  with  manly  coolness,  and,  on  leaving, 
shook  hands  with  us  all,  bidding  us  farewell."  On  the  evening 
previous  to  his  death  he  wrote  affectionate  letters  to  his  three 
orphan  children.  To  one  of  these  letters  a  postscript  was  added 
the  next  morning  as  follows : 

"I  slept  soundly  and  quietly  last  night ;  I  now  feel  as  though 
I  could  meet  the  event  with  composure." 

He  was  the  second  of  the  prisoners  to  be  hanged,  Colonel 
Von  Shoultz  being  the  first  victim  on  December  8. 

Nicholas  Augustus  Sultuskie  Von  Shoultz,  the  elected  chief 
of  the  invading  pcrty,  was  a  good  military  engineer,  deeply  versed 
in  the  sciences,  spoke  eight  languages,  had  acquired  high  literary 
honors,  and  was  widely  travelled.  His  father,  who,  with  another 
son,  fell  before  the  walls  of  Warsaw,  held  an  interest  in  the  cele- 
brated mines  of  Cracow,  where  the  hero  of  the   Battle  of  the 

79 


Windmill  acquired  intimate  knowledge  of  the  manufacturing  of 
salt.  In  the  fall  of  1836  he  set  up  a  laboratory  in  Onondaga 
County,  at  Salina,  where  he  became  engaged  to  a  beautiful  and 
accomplished  American  girl,  undoubtedly  one  of  the  ladies  who 
embroidered  the  flag  now  in  the  Tower  of  London.  Her  minia- 
ture was  torn  from  her  lover's  neck  at  the  time  of  his  capture, 
when  all  of  the  prisoners  were  most  brutally  treated,  being  robbed 
of  their  money,  watches  and  even  clothing,  leaving  some  of  them 
half-naked  in  bitter  winter  weather.  A  few  days  before  \'on 
Shoultz's  death  he  wrote  a  beautiful  song.  "The  Alaiden's  An- 
swer," which,  relates  Captain  Heustis,  he  sang  to  his  companions 
in  a  thrilling  yet  plaintive  voice. 

When  I  visited  Fort  Henry  some  years  ago  I  was  shown  a 
carving  of  a  sloop  on  the  stone  wall  of  the  cell  of  the  condemned 
in  which  Colonel  Abbey  and  Colonel  Von  Shoultz  were  confined, 
and  was  told  that  it  was  made  by  these  intrepid  men.  Under 
more  favorable  circumstances  the  Polish  champion  of  freedom 
would  have  been  regarded  as  the  Kosciusko  of  Canada  and 
Colonel  Abbey  as  the  hero  of  Prescott  Windmill,  just  as  his 
grandfather  is  looked  upon  as  the  hero  of  Enfield  meeting  house. 

The  battle  of  Prescott  was  the  most  severe  engagement  of 
the  Patriot  War.  and  cost  the  loyalists  130  men  in  killed  and 
wounded.  A  serious  fight  took  place  three  weeks  later  at  Windsor, 
in  which  the  battle-cry  was,  "Remember  Prescott. "'  on  account 
of  the  cruelties  practiced  by  the  loyalist  volunteers  on  the  pris- 
oners who  surrendered  at  the  windmill,  whose  lives  were  saved 
only  by  the  intervention  of  the  better  disciplined  and  perhaps 
more  chivalrous  British  regulars.  On  December  13.  1837.  Rens- 
selaer van  Rensselaer  and  24  patriot  volunteers  seized  Navy 
Island,  above  Niagara  Falls,  opposite  Chippawa.  They  w^ere 
joined  by  William  Lyon  Mackenzie,  the  political  chief  of  the 
movement  in  Upper  Canada,  and  set  up  a  provisional  govern- 
ment. \'olunteers  flocked  to  their  standard  and  they  held  the 
island  for  a  month,  during  which  the  American  steamer  "Caro- 
line" was  captured  by  the  British,  set  on  fire  and  sent  over  Niagara 
Falls  ablaze.  When  the  revolutionists  evacuated  Navy  Island  on 
lanuarv  13.  1838.  their  numbers  had  increased  to  about  GOO. 
Louis  Joseph  Papineau  was  the  leader  in  Lower  Canada.  As 
Captain  Heustis  describes  only  his  own  experiences,  any  one 
desirous  of  a  complete  and  impartial  account  of  the  Patriot  War 
should  read  Charles  Lindsey's  "Life  and  Times  of  W'illiam  Lyon 
Mackenzie  and  the  Rebellion  of   1837-8." 

While  from  a  militarv  standpoint  decidedly  a  "Lost  Cause," 

80 


Lindsey  declares  that  "Much  of  the  hberty  Canada  has  enjoyed 
since  1840,  and  more  of  the  wonderful  progress  she  has  made, 
are  due  to  the  changes  which  the  insurrection  was  the  chief 
agent  in  producing."  His  testimony  is  the  more  convincing 
because  he  deplores  the  movement  as  "an  enterprise  which  can- 
not be  justified."  In  his  introduction  Lindsey  further  states  that 
it  "was  in  the  end  advantageous  to  the  country."  The  insurrec- 
tion resulted  in  very  speedily  establishing  responsible  constitu- 
tional government  in  Canada;  in  fact,  it  secured  "Home  Rule" 
for  our  neighbors  on  the  north. 


OLD   WINDMILL 

NEAR   PRESCOTT 

CONVERTED 

INTO   A 

LIGHTHOUSE    BY 

THE    CANADIAN 

GOVERNMENT 


^     \ 


Whether  in  chains  or  in  laurels,  Liberty  knoz^'s  notJiing  hut 
victories.  Bunker  Hill,  soldiers  call  a  defeat.  But  Liberty  dates 
from  it,  though  JVarren  lay  dead  on  the  field. — Wendell  Phillips, 
1859. 


Every  great  crisis  in  human  history  is  a  pass  of  Thermopylae, 
and  there  is  always  a  Leonidas  and  his  joo  to  die  in  it,  if  they 
cannot  conquer.  And  so  long  as  Liberty  has  one  martyr,  so  long 
as  one  drop  of  blood  is  poured  out  for  her,  so  long  from  that 
single  drop  of  bloody  sweat  of  the  agony  of  mankind  sliall  spring 
hosts  as  countless  as  the  forest  leaves  and  as  mighty  as  the 
sea. — George  W^illiam  Curtis,  "The  Call  of  Freedom." 


81 


THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION. 

The  coat-of-arms  of  Mexico  recalls  the  defeat  of  that  country 
by  the  United  States  in  1848.  How  unfortunate  for  the  people 
of  that  unhappy  land  that  our  government  did  not  hold  all  that 
we  then  won  by  force  of  arms.  In  the  68  years  that  have  elapsed 
since  then,  can  anyone  doubt  that  Mexico,  as  a  territory  of  the 
United  States,  would  have  developed  into  another  Texas  or 
California  under  the  same  conditions?  By  the  same  token,  does 
it  not  seem  uncharitable  to  relinquish  the  Philippines?  Left  to 
their  own  resources  and  devices,  I  fear  the  Filipinos  are  likely 
to  relapse  into  even  worse  barbarism  than  the  Mexicans,  if,  as 
they  would  be  quite  unable  to  defend  themselves,  they  are  not, 
like  the  Coreans,  speedily  seized  and  exploited  by  the  Japanese. 
As  we  have  taken  up  the  white  man's  burden  in  the  Far  East, 
it  seems  ungenerous  to  abandon  the  little  brown  men  either  to 
the  Japanese  or  to  their  own  present  incompetence. 


THE  FRIEND   OF   KIT   CARSON. 

EDWIN   ALDEN    ABBEY,   1823-1893 

In  1889,  after  an  absence  of  45  years,  Mr.  Abbey  returned 
to  the  East  to  see  his  relatives.  Straight,  vigorous  and  muscular, 
he  did  not  look  his  sixty-six  years.  We  had  heard  of  his  daring 
in  the  Mexican  War  and  questioned  him  about  his  life  as  a  scout. 
He  thrilled  us  by  his  stories  of  night  rides,  when  he  was  fre- 
quently fired  at,  and  he  told  how  his  horse  would  shy  at  the  dead 
bodies  lying  along  the  roadside.  He  was  known  in  the  West  as 
Kit  Abbey,  on  accoimt  of  his  association  with  Kit  Carson. 


THE  ENGAGEMENT  AT  AGUASCALIENTES. 

Pershing's  Camp  at  Front,  Mexico,  April  7,  by  courier  to 
Columbus,  New  Mexico,  April  14. — About  thirty  men  of  the 
Tenth  Cavalry,  negroes,  who  were  in  the  fight  with  \'illa  bandits 
April  1  at  Aguascalientes,  arrived  here  to-day  for  rest  and  re- 
outfitting.  The  men  were  sure  they  had  killi'd  more  than  the 
three  dead  covered  in  the  official  report.  Three  times  the  \'illa 
forces,  numbering  about  150,  attempted  to  ambush  the  advance 
guards  of  the  Tenth.  Not  more  than  three  troops  of  the  Tenth 
participated  in  the  fight,  which  lasted  an  hour  and  a  half. 

82 


The  Tenth  was  riding  for  Guerrero  when  they  approached 
the  town  of  Aguascahentes.  Nearing  the  top  of  a  rise,  the 
advance  guard  was,  without  warning,  subjected  to  volley  fire, 
coming  sinuiltaneously  from  both  sides  of  the  road.  The  Villa 
men  shooting  at  them  were  behind  hills  on  either  side.  Troop  E 
of  the  Tenth  was  brought  up  at  a  trot,  while  Troop  F  went  around 
to  flank  the  Villa  bandits  and  drive  them  out  of  the  hill.  Troop 
H  was  hurried  forward.  As  E  Troop  rounded  the  hill  at  a  gallop 
it  came  within  a  minute's  ride  of  the  Villa  forces  on  that  side. 
Some  of  the  cavalrymen  got  so  close  that  they  used  their  pistols. 
The  moment  the  E  Troop  appeared  the  Villa  bandits  rode  for 
the  side  of  a  mountain  overlooking  the  town. 

"It  was  the  steepest  mountainside  we  have  seen  anybody 
climbing,"  said  one  of  the  men  today,  "and  they  knew  the  trails 
while  we  did  not,  but  we  went  up  after  them.  We  went  up  on 
our  horses  until  they  made  a  stand  from  behind  rocks.  The  bullets 
were  whistling  all  around  us,  but  they  never  hit  one  of  us.  They 
had  a  machine  gun  in  action,  too.  We  dismounted  and  returned 
the  fire.  Then  they  ran  farther  up  the  mountain,  with  us  after 
them,  until  they  made  another  stand.  We  opened  fire  on  them 
again,  but  they  would  not  stand.  At  last  they  got  away  in  the 
steep  trails  which  they  knew,  while  we  climbed  rocks  and  fallen 
tree  trunks  and  fell  behind." 

The  squadron  in  the  Aguascalientes  fight  was  commanded  by 
Colonel  William  C.  Brown.  Major  Charles  Young  led  the  imme- 
diate chase  of  the  bandits.  Lieutenant  Henry  Abbey,  Jr.,  com- 
manded the  advance  guard,  which  took  the  first  Villa  fire. 
Lieutenant  John  Kennard  commanded  E  Troop  in  the  chase. — 
Nezv  York  Bvening  Post,  April  14,  IQ16. 

The  colored  cavalrymen  of  the  Tenth  Regiment  have  won 
the  name  of  "Hell  on  Horseback."  They  are  absolutely  fearless 
and  wonderfully  well  disciplined. 


83 


THE  CAUSE  OF  STATES  RIGHTS. 
Another  "Lost  Cause"'  is  represented  by  the  shield  of  the 
Confederacy  with  its  reproduction  of  Thomas  Crawford's  statue 
of  George  Washington.  When  the  statue  arrived  in  Virginia  the 
people  of  Richmond  in  their  enthusiasm  dragged  it  by  hand  to 
Capitol  Hill.  Mr.  Crawford  died  in  1857.  and  his  widow,  a  sister 
of  Julia  Ward  Howe,  in  1861  married  Luther  Terry,  the  artist, 
who  painted  the  famous  signboard  of  the  Abbe  Inn  at  Enfield. 


THE  ABBE  INN  AND  TEA   ROOM   AT    ENFIELD 


The  signboard  was  painted  by  Luther  Terry,  the  artist,  step- 
father of  jMarion  Crawford,  the  novelist.  It  was  retouched  in 
1866  by  Mr.  Terry's  nephew,  Luther  Terry  Knight.  On  the 
reverse  side  from  the  American  eagle  the  British  lion  is  depicted 
in  chains.  The  Abbe  House,  now  kept  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  William 
A.  Abbe,  has  been  in  Mr.  Abbe's  family  for  generations.  It  was 
built  by  Peter  Reynolds  Field,  is  said  to  be  12.^  years  old  and  has 
alwavs  been  a  tavern. 


84 


Famous  Descendants  of  the  Immigrants  Named 

on  the  Seats 

ABBE. 
General  George  B.  McClellan,  1826-1885,  was  an  Abbe 
descendant  through  his  great-grandmother,  Rachel  Abbe,  of 
Windham,  the  wife  of  General  Samuel  McClellan  of  the  Revo- 
lution, who  led  a  troop  of  Connecticut  cavalry  at  Bunker  Hill. 
The  mother  of  De  Witt  McClellan  Lockman,  the  well  known 
portrait  painter,  was  also  an  Abbe  of  Windham. 

FAIRFIELD. 
Among  the  descendants  of  the  Fairfield  family  who  have 
distinguished  themselves  I  note  the  following:  John  Fairfield, 
1797-1847,  twice  Governor  of  the  State  of  Maine;  Sumner  Lin- 
coln Fairfield,  1803-1844,  the  poet;  Edmund  Burke  Fairfield, 
1821,  second  chancellor  of  the  University  of  Nebraska;  William 
Fairfield  Warren,  first  president  of  Boston  University,  and  Wes- 
ley Weyman.  the  pianist. 

PEASE. 
The  most  distinguished  descendant  of  the  founder  of  Enfield, 
Captain  John  Pease,  1654-1734,  in  the  direct  line  was  probably 
Elisha  Marshall  Pease,  1812-1883.  Born  in  Enfield,  he  early 
made  his  way  to  the  far  West  and  took  part  with  Sam  Houston 
in  the  revolution  which  freed  Texas  from  Mexico  in  1836.  He 
drafted  the  constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  new  republic.  After 
Texas  was  admitted  to  the  Union,  Mr.  Pease  served  for  three 
terms  as  Governor  of  the  State.  Henry  Roberts  Pease  also 
migrated  to  the  West  and  became  United  States  Senator  from 
Mi'ssissippi.  while  Calvin  Pease  went  to  Vermont  and  became 
president  of  the  State  University. 

TERRY. 
Among  the  descendants  of  Captain  Samuel  Terry,  1661-1730, 
third  captain  of  the  Enfield  trainband,  were  Major  Nathaniel 
Terry,  mentioned  in  the  inscription  on  the  pedestal  as  the  ranking 
officer  of  the  company  enlisted  by  Captain  Abbey ;  General  Alfred 
Howe  Terry,  1827-1890,  of  the  Civil  War,  and  Rev.  Roderick 
Terry,  D.  D.,  of  Newport,  R.  I.,  formerly  governor  of  the  New 
York  Society  of  ]Mayflower  Descendants. 

85 


GOODELL. 

Among  the  Goodell  family  I  note  Rev.  William  Goodell, 
D.  D.,  1792-1867,  missionary  to  Turkey  for  over  40  years,  who 
preached  in  eight  languages  and  translated  the  whole  Bible  into 
Armeno-Turkish ;  Henry  H.  Goodell,  president  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Agricultural  College,  and  David  Harvey  Goodell,  Governor 
of  the  State  of  New  Hampshire. 

BUSH. 

The  most  distinguished  descendant  of  the  Bush  family  is 
Henry  Kirke  Bush-Brown,  the  well  known  sculptor. 


NOBLESSE  OBLIGE. 

If  there  ever  was  a  time,  this  is  the  hour  for  Americans 
to  rouse  themselves  and  exert  every  ability.  Their  all  is  at  hazard 
and  the  die  of  fate  spins  doubtful !  In  vain  do  we  trace  magna- 
nimity and  heroism ;  in  vain  do  we  trace  a  descent  from  the 
worthies  of  the  earth,  if  we  inherit  not  the  spirit  of  our  ancestors. 
— Josiah  Onincy,  October  j,  i'/68. 


"Under  a  republican  form  of  government  the  i)idwidital's 
public  duty  to  the  state  is  as  important  as  Iiis  private  duty  to  his 
family." 

86 


AMERICA'S  DEBT  TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  WASHINGTON 
AND  HIS  ASSOCIATES. 

Americans,  this  God  who  raised  up  Washington  and  gave 
you  liberty  exacts  from  you  the  duty  of  cherishing  it  with  a 
zeal  according  to  knowledge.  Never  sully  by  apathy  or  outrage 
your  fair  inheritance.  Risk  not  for  one  moment  on  visionary 
theories  the  solid  blessings  of  your  lot.  To  you  particularly,  O 
youth  of  America,  applies  the  solemn  charge.  In  all  the  perils 
of  your  country,  remember  Washington.  The  freedom  of  reason 
and  of  right  has  been  handed  down  to  you  on  the  point  of  the 


THE   MATTHEW   G.  ANDERSON   HOUSE 

In  Enfield  Street 
Washington  passed  a  night  in  this  house,   which  was  built  in   1708. 


hero's  sword.  Guard  with  veneration  the  sacred  deposit.  The 
curse  of  ages  will  rest  upon  you,  O  youth  of  America,  if  ever 
you  surrender  to  foreign  ambition  or  domestic  lawlessness  the 
precious  liberties  for  which  Washington  fought  and  your  fathers 
bled.  I  cannot  part  with  you,  fellow  citizens,  without  urging  the 
long  remembrance  of  our  present  assembly.  This  day  we  wipe 
away  the  reproach  of  republics,  that  they  know  not  how  to  be 
grateful.  In  your  treatment  of  living  patriots  recall  your  love 
and  your  regret  of  Washington.— John  Mitchell  Mason's  funeral 
oration  on  Washington,  February  22,  1800. 

87 


Connecticut's  Western  Reserve  in  Ohio 

Personal  Recollections  of  Cleveland  Celebrities 

A  remarkable  group  of  men  and  women  lived  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  my  childhood  home  in  Cleveland,  Ohio.  Two  doors  above 
us  in  Prospect  street  lived  the  parents  of  Mark  Hanna,  in  a  house 
shaded  by  two  huge  horsechestnut  trees  typical  of  the  Buckeye 
State.  Next  door,  on  the  other  side,  lived  Mr.  Bragg,  who  was 
a  school  principal  and  later  became  the  head  of  the  school-book 
trust  in  Cincinnati.  Later  the  same  house  was  occupied  by  the 
head  of  the  Cleveland  public  library  and  his  son,  William  H. 
Beardsley,  now  president  of  the  Florida  East  Coast  Railway 
Company,  the  great  Flagler  system  built  over  the  Florida  Keys. 
Around  the  corner  in  Cheshire  street  lived  William  A.  Rockefeller 
and  his  sons,  John  D.  and  William  Rockefeller. 

One  block  away,  in  Euclid  avenue,  lived  U.  S.  Senator  Henry 
B.  Payne,  whose  wife  was  a  daughter  of  Nathan  Perry,  a 
pioneer  settler  of  Cleveland.  Next  to  the  Payne  house  is  the 
Perry  homestead,  a  charming  old  house,  with  some  of  the 
original  wallpaper  still  carefully  preserved  on  its  walls.  In  my 
boyhood  days  the  wide  fields  adjoining  were  known  as  Perry's 
pasture  and  were  the  favorite  playground  of  the  boys  of  the 
neighborhood.  Later  the  famous  mayor  of  Cleveland,  Tom  John- 
son, lived  in  a  house  built  on  a  part  of  this  pasture  lot.  Senator 
Pa\ne"s  son.  Colonel  Oliver  Hazard  Payne,  served  with  distinc- 
tion in  the  civil  war,  and  was  later  treasurer  of  the  Standard  Oil 
Company,  in  which  office  my  father  was  his  successor.  My 
father  afterward  became  treasurer  of  the  Standard  Oil  Trust, 
which  was  devised  by  S.  C.  T.  Dodd,  known  as  "The  Father  of 
Trusts,"  who  was  a  very  successful  lawyer  and  witty  after- 
dinner  speaker.  When,  in  1889,  my  father  retired  from  the 
treasurership  of  the  trust  to  become  chairman  of  the  board  of 
the  Missouri,  Kansas  and  Texas  Railroad,  he  was  succeeded  by 
\\'illiam  T.  Wardwell,  at  one  time  the  Prohibition  candidate  for 
President  of  the  United  States.  Senator  Payne's  daughter,  Flora 
Payne,  married  William  C.  \\niitney,  secretary  of  the  navy  vmder 
President  Cleveland,  and, became  the  social  leader  of  that  admin- 
istration. 

Not  far  from  the  home  of  Senator  Payne  lived  Colonel  John 
Hay,  who  had  been  private  secretary  to  President  Lincoln,  was 
later    ambassador    to    England,    and    finallv    secretarv    of    state, 


Bust  by  ENID  YANDELL,  Sculptor 

and  reduced  signature  of  Joel  Francis  Freeman,  1836- 
1910.  A  sketch  of  his  life  will  be  found  in  volume  XV 
of  the  National  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography, 
pages  276  and  277. 


89 


negotiating  the  "'open  door''  policy  with  China.  He  was  credited 
in  Cleveland  with  the  authorship  of  the  popular  novel,  "Bread 
Winners,"  published  anonymously,  with  the  scene  obviously  laid 
in  the  vicinity  of  Colonel  Hay's  home.  In  his  keen  instinct  for 
character  he  was  a  diviner  of  men,  their  greatness  and  meanness, 
and  scented  a  villain  afar  off,  no  matter  how  highly  placed.  For 
Napoleon  HI.  he  conceived  an  instant  disgust,  but  his  supreme 
aversion  was  the  present  German  Kaiser.  In  1900  he  wrote  to 
his  closest  friend :  "At  least  we  are  spared  the  infamy  of  an 
alliance  with  Germany.  I  would  rather,  I  think,  be  the  dupe  of 
China  than  the  chum  of  the  Kaiser." 

Next  door  to- John  Hay  lived  his  father-in-law,  Amasa  Stone, 
who  caused  the  removal  of  the  Western  Reserve  University  from 
Hudson  to  Cleveland,  and  endowed  and  named  its  classical 
department  Adelbert  College,  in  memory  of  his  son,  for  whom 
Colonel  Hay's  son,  Adelbert  Hay,  was  also  named.  Although  the 
Case  School  of  Applied  Science,  established  by  my  uncle,  Henry 
G.  Abbey,  as  sole  trustee  of  the  late  Leonard  Case,  has  no  legal 
connection  with  Western  Reserve  University,  it  is  practically  the 
scientific  department  of  the  university,  just  as  Adelbert  College 
is  the  classical  department. 

The  eldest  daughter  of  Seth  Alden  Abbey  was  Hannah  Ward 
Abbey,  who,  in  1848,  married  John  Ingersoll,  member  of  a 
pioneer  family  of  the  Western  Reserve  in  Ohio.  In  May,  1850, 
he  went  by  way  of  the  Isthmus  to  California,  where  he  met  his 
brother-in-law,  Henry  Gilbert  Abbey,  who  had  preceded  him  in  the 
rush  of  1849.  I  remember  my  uncle's  mother  very  well.  She 
was  Polly  Perry,  of  the  town  of  Lee,  in  Massachusetts,  and  mar- 
ried Nathan  Ingersoll,  January  17,  1812.  They  soon  migrated  to 
Ohio,  going  by  way  of  Albany  and  the  Mohawk  Valley.  The 
bride  rode  horseback  most  of  the  journey,  which  lasted  six 
weeks. 

Polly  Perry  Ingersoll  had  a  keen  intellect  and  active  mind. 
She  lived  to  be  ninety,  and  I  have  heard  her  tell  how,  one  after- 
noon in  September,  when  they  had  been  settled  for  about  a  year 
on  their  farm  on  the  heights  above  Cleveland,  they  heard  con- 
tinuous thunder  under  a  cloudless  sky,  which  later  proved  to  be  the 
heavy  cannonading  of  the  battle  of  Lake  Erie,  in  which  her 
kinsman,  Oliver  Hazard  Perry,  won  his  famous  victory. 

Near  neighbors  of  the  Hay  and  Stone  families  were  the 
Boardman  family,  of  which  Miss  Mabel  T.  Boardman  is  now  the 

90 


head  of  the  American  Red  Cross  Society.  One  of  my  mother's 
schoolmates  in  Cleveland  was  Constance  Fenimore  Woolson,  the 
novelist  and  great-niece  of  James  Fenimore  Cooper.  While 
attending  the  Cleveland  high  school  I  remember  that  Professor 
Hotze,  the  teacher  of  physics,  never  tired  of  telling  us  about  his 
favorite  pupil,  Charles  F.  Brush,  who,  while  still  a  student,  was 
so  proficient  that  the  professor  placed  him  in  charge  of  the 
chemical  and  physical  laboratory  of  the  high  school.  Mr.  Brush 
built  himself  a  fine  home  in  Euclid  avenue. 

When  John  Hay  retired  as  ambassador  to  Great  Britain  the 
embassy  continued  to  be  presided  over  by  a  Cleveland  woman, 
for  the  wife  of  Joseph  H.  Choate  is  the  daughter  of  Frederick  A. 
Sterling  and  the  sister  of  Dr.  EHsha  Sterling.  Dr.  Sterling  was 
one  of  the  Case  "Arkites"  and  lives  on  the  "Nabob,"  or  north 
side  of  Euclid  avenue.  The  south  side,  with  its  more  modest 
homes  and  less  extensive  lawns,  was  called  the  "Bob"  side 
in  the  days  of  my  boyhood.  A  Cleveland  boy  who  lived  in 
Prospect  street,  on  the  block  above  our  home,  went  to  West 
Point,  and  is  now  General  Clarence  R.  Edwards,  and  in 
command  of  the  troops  stationed  on  the  Panama  Canal.  I 
also  vividly  recall  a  little  girl  in  our  Sunday  school  at  the 
Second  Presbyterian  church.  She  had  black  eyes  and  very  blonde 
hair,  and  her  beauty  later  caused  a  furore  in  Europe.  Edward 
VII.,  then  Prince  of  Wales,  described  her  as  "the  girl  with  the 
gipsy  eyes  and  angel  hair."  This  was  Jennie  Chamberlain,  now 
Lady  Naylor-Leland,  in  whose  house  in  London  Whistler  painted 
his  famous  "Peacock  Room." 

A  NOTE  OF  EXPLANATION. 

To  the  casual  reader  the  multitude  of  dates  and  minor 
details  included  in  this  pamphlet  may  appear  trivial  and  tiresome ; 
some  may  think  the  Enfield  Memorial  overladen  with  inscriptions. 
On  the  memorial  have  been  recorded  as  many  material  facts  as 
possible  of  local  and  family  history ;  in  the  pamphlet  I  have 
endeavored  once  and  for  all  to  gather  in  permanent  form  for  the 
benefit  of  the  families  mentioned  in  the  inscriptions  and  for  their 
descendants  such  additional  facts  of  their  ancestry  as  I  have  been 
able  to  collect  during  my  lifetime. 


91 


THE  DRUM  OF  LEXINGTON. 
(Reflections  for  Patriots"  Day.) 

But  yesterday  I  saw  the  historic  drum 

Which  WilHam  Dimon  beat 
Upon  that  fateful  far-ofif  April  morn 

.\long  each  winding  street, 
And  on  the  memorable  Green  of  I^exington, 

Bidding  the  patriots  come 
And  lace  the  Ijanded  hosts  of  tyranny. 

At  the  reveille  was  a  nation  born, 
Pledged  to  the  sacred  rights  of  Liberty. 

Now.  'nt-ath  the  rays  of  the  same  vernal  sun. 

Peace  broods  about  the  Green, 
P)Ut  it  remembers  yet. 

Girdled  with  stately  elms  memorial, 
The  hurtle  of  the  deadly  musket  ball, 

And  how  its  sod  was  wet 
With  sacrificial  blood — the  whole  sad,  ruthless  scene. 

Would  that  the  drum  of  Lexington  again 

Might  sound  its  summoning  call, 
Sound  from  the  rocky  coasts  of  Maine, 

Where  Agimenticus,  inland,  fronts  the  seas 
To  where  the  long  trades  sweep  and  swell  and  fall 

Round  the  Floridian  keys ! 
Aye,  sound  from  Puget,  on  which  Shasta's  crown 

Majestically  looks  down, 
E'en  to  the  borders  of  that  stricken  land 

Beyond  the  brown  coils  of  the  Rio  Grande! 


92 


Have  we  grown  sleek  with  sloth? 

Sloughed  the  old  virile  spirit,  taken  on 
Abasement  for  a  garment?     Are  we  loth 

To  rouse  us,  and  to  don 
Tlie  rapt  heroic  valor  once  again 

That  girdled  us  when  men  indeed  were  men? 
Caution  and  doubt  and  fear  seem  subtly  crept 

Upon  us,  and  inept, 
We  stumble,  falter,  palter,  and  we  need 

Not  the  smooth  word,  but  the  swift  searching  deed. 
If  bleed  we  must,  then  rather  let  us  bleed 

Than  sit  inglorious,  rich  in  all  the  things 
Save  those  which  honor  brings ! 

Now  every  slope  of  our  dear  land  is  fair 

Beneath  the  azure  of  the  April  air  ; 
The  impatient  loam  is  ready  for  the  seed, 

But  we  ?    Take  heed,  take  heed. 
My  brothers !    And  O  you.  brave  wraith 

Of  dauntlessness  and  faith, 
You,  William  Dimon,  come  ! 

Come,  sound  the  old  reveille  on  your  drum, 
The  drum  of  Lexington, 

And  make  us  all,  in  steadfast  purpose,  one ! 

Clinton   Scollard. 
New  York  Sun.  April  19,  1916. 


93 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

In  concluding  I  should  be  guilty  of  injustice  if  I  did  not 
acknowledge  my  debt  to  that  most  painstaking,  reliable  and 
untiring  of  genealogists,  Mr.  James  Allen  Kibbe,  of  Warehouse 
Point,  Connecticut,  the  compiler  of  "The  History  of  Enfield," 
whose  help  has  guided  my  researches  into  their  most  interesting, 
remote  and,  to  me,  valuable  discoveries. 

I  wish  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the  very  practical  and 
efficient  assistance  of  Mr.  Allen  B.  Hathaway,  chairman  of  the 
First  Ecclesiastical  Society  of  Enfield,  and  the  courtesy  and 
helpfulness  of  the  Selectmen  of  the  town  of  Enfield;  also  my 
indebtedness  to  Mr.  Normand  F.  Allen,  of  Hartford;  to  Mr. 
Franklin  J.  Sheldon,  of  Enfield,  and  to  Mrs.  William  A.  Abbe, 
president  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Enfield,  all  of  whom  have 
been  helpful  and  sympathetic. 

Xor  can  I  close  without  a  word  of  appreciation  to  Mr.  Will- 
iam M.  Kendall  for  the  beautiful  classical  design  of  the  seats, 
which  was  his  conception ;  to  Mr.  Ernest  F.  Lewis  for  his  patient 
study  and  artistic  execution  of  the  drawings,  especially  those  for 
the  seals ;  in  fact,  to  all  connected  with  the  firm  of  McKim,  Mead 
&  \Miite,  especially  mentioning  Mr.  Eeland  S.  Sudlow,  the  gen- 
eral superintendent,  and  Air.  John  Vegezzi.  the  draughtsman  who 
designed  the  lettering:  to  Donnelly  &  Ricci,  who  modeled  the 
pedestal,  seats  and  seals,  and  to  Mr.  Ulysses  Ricci,  the  sculptor 
of  the  seals;  to  Mr.  V.  David  Newman,  of  Romulus,  N.  Y., 
to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  many  of  the  photographs  which  illus- 
trate this  pamphlet,  including  those  of  the  twenty  seals  ;  and  to 
Mr.  Edwin  Shuttleworth,  who  contracted  for  all  the  marble  and 
other  material  and  has  executed  the  work  with  efficiency  and 
dispatch.  The  marble  used  is  from  the  Ross  quarry  in  Tennessee, 
being  the  same  stone  as  that  used  in  the  Morgan  library  in  New 
York.  Mr.  Fry's  noble  figure  of  Captain  Abbey  needs  no  enco- 
mium from  me.  It  speaks  for  itself  in  beauty,  dignity  and 
strength. 

I  do  not  wish  the  Abbey  Memorial  to  share  the  fate  of  the 
Perry  Monument  in  my  native  city  of  Cleveland.  The  beautiful 
white  marble  statue  of  Commodore  Perry,  with  its  supporting 
figures  of  sailor  boys,  was  originally  erected  in  the  middle  of  the 
Public  Square.  On  the  introduction  of  electric  lighting  the  Perry 
Monument  was  moved  to  the  centre  of  one  of  the  quarter  sections 

94 


of  the  square  to  make  place  for  a  gigantic  pole.  Later,  the  second 
location  was  sought  for  a  memorial  to  the  women  of  the  Civil 
War,  and  Commodore  Perry  was  again  moved,  this  time  to  a 
suburban  park  on  the  lake  shore.  I  consulted  my  long-time 
friend,  Hon.  Julian  A.  Gregory,  Mayor  of  East  Orange,  1911- 
1915,  as  to  preventing  similar  migrations  on  the  part  of  the  statue 
of  Captain  Abbey.  Mr.  Gregory  made  an  exhaustive  search  of 
the  statutes  of  the  State  of  Connecticut,  in  which  is  his  summer 
home  at  Wilton  in  Fairfield  County.  The  result  of  his  labors  was 
that,  at  a  town  meeting  held  in  the  venerable  building^'^  around 
whose  walls  Thomas  Abbey  beat  his  drum,  it  was  unanimously 
voted  by  the  people  of  Enfield  on  November  11,  1915,  to  give  for 
the  Abbey  Memorial  in  perpetuity  the  site  on  Enfield  Green, 
where  the  present  town  hall  stood  when  it  was  Enfield's  meeting 

house. 

Julian  iVrthur  Gregory  is  the  man  who  for  years  fought  and 
exposed  the  Democratic  boss  of  New  Jersey,  United  States 
Senator  James  Smith,  and  by  so  doing  prepared  the  way  for  his 
final  overthrow  by  Woodrow  Wilson  when  Governor  of  New 
Jersey.  He  is  the  only  Democrat  who  was  ever  elected  Mayor 
of  East  Orange,  normally  a  Republican  stronghold.  He  gave 
such  an  absolutely  non-partisan  and  just  administration  of  the 
city's  aft'airs  that  100  members  of  the  Republican  Club  of  East 
Orange  united  in  a  petition  to  this  Democrat  to  stand  for  a  second 
term  and  he  was  re-elected  by  an  overwhelming  majority.  With 
great  generosity  Mr.  Gregory  donated  his  legal  services  in  secur- 
ing- the  site  of  the  Abbey  Memorial. 


*  An  error.  This  town  meeting  was  held  in  the  Thompsonville  sec- 
tion of  Enfield.  ^Ir.  Hathaway  tells  me  that  for  some  years  the.  old 
town  hall  has  been  abandoned  for  town  meetings  on  account  of  its  dis- 
tance from  the  present  center  of  population.  I  indulge  the  hope  that  the 
citizens  of  Enfield  will  unite  to  preserve  this  historic  buildmg  as  a 
memorial  of  olden  times. 

Mr.  T.  W.  Miller,  who  is  superintending  the  erection  of  the  memorial, 
writes  that  in  excavating  for  the  foundation  a  circular  brownstone  wall 
was  uncovered.  Mr.  J.  Warren  Johnson  tells  me  that  this  was  the  well 
of  the  Town  Pump,  which  stood  a  few  feet  north  of  the  old  meeting 
house.  It  seems  clear,  therefore,  that  the  memorial  is  located  quite  close 
to  the  site  of  the  church    around  which  Captain  Abbey  beat  the  drum. 


95 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT  OF  LITERARY  ASSISTANCE. 

I  wish  to  acknowledge  the  great  assistance  afforded  me  in 
the  difficult  task  of  wording  the  inscriptions  by  Mr.  Wesley 
Weynian,  the  pianist.  Those  who  admire  his  art  as  a  musician 
of  the  first  rank  are  perhaps  not  aware  that  genealogy  is  his 
recreation.  I  am  also  indebted  for  valuable  aid  to  Miss  Sara 
Anna  Dunn,  music  critic  of  the  New  York  Sun;  to  Miss  Susan 
Hayes  Ward,  the  author  and  critic,  and  to  her  brother.  Dr. 
\\'illiam  Hayes  Ward,  the  editor  of  The  Independent ;  to  Miss 
Kate  Dickinson  Sweetser,  whose  writings  are  introducing  chil- 
dren in  so  attractive  a  manner  to  the  boys  and  girls  of  Dickens. 
George  Eliot  and  Thackeray,  and  to  the  children  of  history,  not 
to  mention  her  Indian  braves;  to  Mr.  Eckstein  Case,  secretary 
and  treasurer  of  the  Case  School  of  Applied  Science;  to  the 
editor  of  The  Atlantic  Monthly  for  permission  to  use  the  poem, 
"The  Captain's  Drum";  and  I  must  acknowledge  my  debt  to  that 
noble  gallery  of  American  men  and  women.  The  National 
Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography,  and  particularly  to  its  Con- 
spectus, which  is  an  inspiration  to  patriotic  endeavor.  From  my 
recent  thorough  and  exhaustive  study  of  this  interesting  work  I 
am  persuaded  that  Dean  Stanley  was  correct  when  he  said  that 
the  L^nited  States,  more  than  any  other  country  in  the  world, 
furnishes  examples  of  the  finest  men  and  women  that  have  ever 
lived.  Does  not  such  a  tribute  as  that,  from  our  Mother  Country, 
prove  that  the  American  experiment,  our  "Great  Adventure"  in 
democracy,  is  proving  itself  a  success?  By  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them. 

America  has  furnished  to  the  world  the  cliaracter  of  Washington, 
and  if  our  American  institutions  had  done  nothing  else,  that  alone 
would  entitle  them  to  the  respect  of  mankind. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER. 


96 


Lincoln  on  Free  Speech 

I  FEAR  YOU  DO  NOT  FULLY  COMPREHEND  THE 
DANGER  OF  ABRIDGING  THE  LIBERTIES  OF  THE 
PEOPLE.  A  GOVERNMENT  HAD  BETTER  GO  TO  THE 
VERY  EXTREME  OF  TOLERATION  THAN  TO  DO 
AUGHT  THAT  COULD  BE  CONSTRUED  INTO  AN 
INTERFERENCE  WITH  OR  TO  JEOPARDIZE  IN  ANY 
DEGREE  THE  COMMON  RIGHTS  OF  THE  CITIZEN. 

This  was  President  Lincoln's  answer  to  the  friends  who 
besought  him  to  suppress  the  Chica^^o  Times  during  the  Civil 
Wai. 


97 


DEDICATION 


OF  THE 


ABBEY   MEMORIAL 


ON 


ENFIELD  GREEN 


Saturday  Afternoon,  November  4,  1916 


AT  TWO  O'CLOCK 


THE  ENFIELD   COMMITTEES. 

Allen  B.  Hathaway,  Chairman 

SELECTMEN   OF  ENFIELD. 

Albert  J.  Epstein  Robert  Hawthorne 

John  Savage 
J.  Hamilton  Potter,   Town  Clerk 

FIRST   congregational   CHURCH   OF  ENFIELD. 

J.  Warren  Johnson  Deacon  Herbert  E.  Vail 

Deacon  Harlan  P.  Parsons  Mrs.  Frank  H.  Abbe 

Deacon  Robert  F.  King  Mrs.  William  K.  Henry 

Mrs.  David  C.  Reid 
thompsonville  committee. 
Lyman  A.  Upson  Arthur  R.  Leete 

Alvin  D.  Higgins  William  Calderwood 

Senator  Thomas  G.  Alcorn  William  J.  Hughes 

William  H.  Leete  W.  J.  Liberty 

hazardville  committee. 
Andrew  Gordon  H.  Stephen  Bridge 

George  J.  Gordon  Francis  P.  LE-^ry 

Jacob  Thorne 
wallup  and  weymouth. 
Levi  p.  Abbe  Seth  Phelps 

the  shakers. 
Elder  Shepperd 
king  street. 
James  D.  Price  Charles  T.  Abbe 

Harry  E.  Allen 
decoration  committee. 
NoRMAND  F.  Allen  \\'it.l  Sexton 

William  A.  Abbe  Will  Allen 

THE   press. 

William  J.  Hughes  Harvey  Brainard 

automobile  parking  and  traffic 
Ernest  W.  Woodward  W.  J.  Connors 

Albert  F.  Baker  P-  J-  Rogers 

DAUGHTERS    OF    THE    AMERICAN    REVOLUTION. 

Mrs.  Normand  F.  Allen  Mrs.  Allen  B.  Hathaway 

old  town   hall  committee. 
Major  Franklin  J.  Sheldon  Ernest  W.  Woodward 

101 


ENFIELD  CHURCH 
Photographed  by  dc  Witt  C  Ward 


USHERS  AT  ENFIELD  CHURCH. 

Warrex  B.  Johnson  Roujn  F.  Parsons 

LEROY  L.  Day  Charles  C.  Chapin 

Harry  E.  AllEn  Edward  Kingsbury 

RECEPTION    COMMITTEE. 

James  Allen  Kibbe  R-  Ensign  Abbe 

NoRMAND  F.  Allen  William  A.  Abbe 

Frxxk  H.  Abbe  George  T.  Mathewson 

Levi  p.  Abbe  Harry  S.  Woodnvard 

INVOCATION. 
By   Rev.    David    C.    Reid,    Pastor   of   the   First   Congregational 

Church  of  Enfield. 
"Almighty  God,  Father  of  all  mercies,  we.  Thine  unworthy 
servants,  do  give  Thee  most  humble  and  hearty  thanks  for  all 
Thy  goodness  and  loving  kindness  to  us  and  to  all  men.     We 
bless  Thee  for  our  creation,  preservation  and  all  the  blessmgs  of 
life    but  above  all  for  Thine  inestimable  love  in  the  redemption 
of  the  world  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  for  the  means  of  grace, 
and  for  the  hope  of  glory.     And  we  beseech  Thee  give  us  that 
due  sense  of  all  Thy  mercies,  that  our  hearts  may  be  unfeignedly 
thankful,  and  that  we  may  show  forth  Thy  praise  not  only  with 
our  lips,  but  in  our  lives,  by  giving  up  ourselves  to  Thy  service 
and  by  walking  before  Thee  in  righteousness  and  holiness  all  our 
days ;  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  to  whom,  with  Thee  and 
the   Holy   Spirit,   be   all   honor   and   glory,   world   without   end. 
Amen." 

And  we  thank  Thee,  Almighty  God,  Father  of  all  nations, 
that  Thou  didst  earlv  plant  the  tree  of  liberty  in  this  land  of  ours, 
and  didst  cause  it  to  grow  and  become  strong  and  spread  its 
branches  abroad  to  bear  fruit  for  the  healing  of  all  nations.    We 
thank  Thee  that  in  all  the  course  and  struggles  of  this  nation  s 
history.  Thou  hast  been  our  Leader :  and  that  when  our  republic 
was  in  the  throes  of  national  birth,  and  when  the  minds  of  men 
were  uncertain  and  their  hearts  filled  with  fear;  when  they  knew 
not  which  side  to  take,  or  which  way  to  go,  then  Thou  didst 
cause  the  people  to  fix  their  eyes  on  the  star  of  libeity.  union  and 
democracy,  and  led  by  that  star,  to  find  th«  land  of  a  free,  a 
united  and  an  enlightened  people. 

For  these  and  other  national  blessings  we  render  Thee  hearty 
thanks  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 


103 


And  Heavenly  Father,  thou  God  of  the  patriots,  as  we  pro- 
ceed in  the  ceremonies  of  this  hour,  as  we  unveil  this  monument 
placed  here  to  commemorate  the  deeds  of  one  of  our  ancestors 
v/ho  helped  here  and  elsewhere  to  give  this  nation  a  birth  in 
liberty ;  as  we  contemplate  the  names  of  his  descendants,  who 
have  distinguished  themselves  by  important  services,  we  thank 
Thee  not  only  for  the  patriotism  of  the  father  and  the  mother  of 
revolutionary  times,  but  also  that  the  patriotism  and  the  virtues 
of  the  father  and  the  mother  have  descended  to  their  sons  and 
daughters  even  unto  the  third  and  the  fourth  generations  ;  and 
have  been  fruitful  in  the  many  parts  of  this  land  wherever  provi- 
dence has  led  them  to  make  their  home. 

And  we  thank  Thee  for  all  the  patriots  of  all  that  early  time, 
and  for  all  their  descendants  who  have  labored  to  make  this  a 
land  of  liberty  and  light  and  of  united  effort  for  the  highest  wel- 
fare of  all  the  people. 

And  Thou  who  art  the  God  of  the  present  and  of  the  future 
years,  as  we  recall  the  patriotism  of  past  generations,  we  offer 
a  humble  petition  for  ourselves  and  for  the  years  to  come.  Grant, 
oh  God.  that  we  may  emulate  the  patriotism  and  the  virtues  of 
our  ancestors ;  grant  that  we  may  be  able  still  to  keep  our  eyes 
fixed  upon  the  star  that  guided  our  fathers,^ — the  star  of  liberty 
and  union,  which  are  still  "one  and  inseparable,  now  and  for- 
ever." 

And  do  Thou  give  us  the  vision  of  true  citizens  and  true 
statesmen,  that  we  may  be  able  to  see  the  agents  that  work  for 
liberty  and  union  and  see  also  those  that  do  not.  And  grant  that 
we  may  be  able  ever  to  choose  and  cherish  the  one  as  we  would  the 
joys  of  heaven,  and  shun  and  oppose  the  other  as  we  would  the 
woes  of  hell. 

And  we  pray  for  all  nations  of  the  earth.  And  as  our  orig- 
inal thirteen  colonies,  by  following  the  star  of  liberty  and  union, 
grew  into  a  united,  mighty  people  with  peace  established  within 
their  borders,  so  may  all  nations  of  the  earth  learn  together  to 
follow  that  same  star  of  hope.  And  grant  that  they  may  follow 
that  star  until  they  shall  arrive  at  true  international  liberty,  with 
a  true  international  union  in  a  League  of  Peace  embracing  all 
nations  of  the  earth,  which  shall  work  together  for  the  common 
international  good. 

And  so  may  the  words  spoken  by  proi)hets  of  old  be  fulfilled, 
when  the  whole  earth  shall  be  filled  with  prosperity  and  gladness 
and  the  desert  places  shall  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose. 

101 


And  to  this  end,  oh  Thou  Father  of  love,  bring  us  all,  as 
individuals,  communities  and  nations,  under  the  dominion  of  the 
law  of  Christ,  which  is  the  law  of  love.  Give  us  then  that  love 
v/hich  will  do  no  wrong  to  one's  neighbor,  which  will  unite  all 
hearts  and  all  nations  as  one  and  will  bring  in  everywhere  "peace 
on  earth  and  good  will  among  men."    Amen. 

SOLO— "AMERICA." 

By  Mme.  Florence  Mulford  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company, 
New  York,  accompanied  by  Gerald  Maas  on  the  'Cello. 

HISTORICAL  ADDRESS. 
By  J.  Warren  Johnson,  Esq.,  of  Enfield. 

It  is  doubted  by  some  that  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Lex- 
ington could  have  reached  Enfield  on  Thursday  afternoon,  April 
20,  1775.  On  Wednesday,  April  19,  1775,  the  first  blood  of  the 
American  Revolution  was  shed  at  Lexington,  Mass.  The  news 
reached  Enfield  on  the  afternoon  of  April  20,  1775.  Isaac  Kibbe 
kept  the  tavern  near  the  church,  and  as  soon  as  the  messenger 
arrived,  Kibbe  procured  a  drum  and  Thomas  Abbe  beat  the  long 
roll  about  the  church.  It  was  then  the  custom,  which  was  kept 
up  until  within  the  memory  of  the  speaker,  that  all  the  churches 
held  mid-week  meetings  at  the  church  on  Thursday  afternoon 
of  each  week,  in  which  a  lecture  was  given  by  the  pastor.  The 
meeting  being  held  on  Thursday  afternoon,  April  20,  1775,  was 
broken  up  by  Thomas  Abbe's  drumming,  and  without  the  usual 
decorum  the  congregation  rushed  out  to  learn  the  cause  of  the 
uproar.  They  dispersed  to  their  homes  and  that  night  every 
person  in  Enfield  knew  about  the  fight  at  Lexington.  The  next 
morning  seventy-five  of  the  Minute  Men  of  Enfield  marched 
for  Boston,  each  with  his  flint-lock  musket  and  powder  horn. 
Not  all  of  the  seventy-five  reached  Boston,  but  Thomas  /\bbe  did. 

We  have  all  their  names,  and  I  will  caU  "The  Long  Roll"  of 
the  Minute  Men  of  Enfield  on  April  20,  1775: 

Nathaniel  Terry,  Major  Daniel  Kingsbury 

Richard  Abbe,  Lieutenant  Barzilia  Markham 
John  Simons,  Captain  Corporals 

Joseph  Booth,  Ensign  David  Chandler 

Sergeants  Eliphalet  Killam 

Samuel  Jones  Elihu  Geer 

Jonathan  Bush  John  Simons,  2nd 

105 


Privates 


Nathaniel  Chandler 
Samuel  Pease 
Thomas  Hale 
Jacob  Terry,  Jr. 
John  Pease,  2nd 
Samuel  Hale 
James  Green 
Seth  Hall 
Peter  Pero 
Thomas  Abbe 
Jabez  Parsons 
Daniel  Prior 
John  Abbe 
Joseph  Gleason 
Isaac  Pease 
Oliver  Bush 
Moses  Bush 
Moses  Warner 
Edmund  Bement 
John  McLester 
Nathan  Markham 
Daniel  Burbank 
Hezekiah  Parsons 
Samuel  Hemingway 
John  Chandler 
Benjamin  Herrington 
Thomas  Pease 
Solomon  Gaines 
Richard  Fairman 
John  Crosby 
Levi  French 
John  Parsons 


Elii)halet  Collins 
Josiah  Blakesley 
Asaliel  Parsons 
Aaron  Pease,  Jr. 
Ebenezer  M.  Gregory 
David  Phelps,  Jr. 
Asa  Meacham 
Isaac  Markham 
Shadrach  Terry 
Christopher  Marshall 
Samuel  Kingsbury 
Henry  Booth 
Benajah  Griswold 
Nathaniel  Lamb 
Aaron  Waters 
Zebulun  Pease 
Titus  Fairman 
Ambrose  Markham 
Jacob  Fairman 
Jonathan  Allen 
John  Hall 
John  Morrison 
Jacob  Shepard 
Ebenezer  Parsons 
Peter  Parsons 
Gideon  Pease 
Abram  Whipple 
James  Pease 
Peter  Reynolds 
Daniel  Terry 
Hezekiah  Parsons 


Some  of  the  above  named  never  reached  Boston.  The  Red 
Coats  having  retreated,  many  of  them  returned  home.  Hezekiah 
Parsons,  Captain  and  Thomas  Ablje  and  Barzilia  ]\larkham,  Lieu- 
tenants, and  thirty-two  others  marched  on  and  remained  in  the 
vicinity  of  Boston  until  winter. 

We  have  also  the  names  of  fourteen  Enfield  men  who  lost 
their  lives  in  the  Revolutionary  \\'ar: 

Freegrace  Billings  Lieutenant  Noah  Phelps 


106 


Edward  Collins  Levi  Terry 

John  Allen  Oliver  Pease 

Jedediah  Meacham  Joseph  Hall 

Benjamin  Gains  Nathaniel  Pease 

Isaac  French  Georg^e  Pease 

Oliver  Parsons  Farnum 

Both  of  these  lists  were  compiled  by  my  father,  Aholiab 
Johnson,  for  the  Centennial  Exercises,  held  in  Enfield  on  July  4, 
1876.  Both  he  and  I  were  speakers  on  that  occasion  and  the  lists 
were  printed  in  an  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Town  of  Enfield 
prepared  by  him.  Mr.  Freeman  says  that  my  father's  enthusiasm 
inspired  Benjamin  Taylor  to  write  "The  Captain's  Drum,"  and 
that  except  for  Aholiab  Johnson's  efiforts  to  keep  the  tradition 
alive,  Mr.  Taylor's  inspiring  poem  would  never  have  been  written, 
nor  would  this  noble  statue  have  been  erected. 

For  a  long  time  previous  to  the  Lexington  fight  the  people 
of  America  had  expected  such  a  clash,  in  fact  longed  for  it,  and 
were  prepared  for  it.  Every  town  within  a  hundred  miles  of 
Boston  had  its  Minute  Men  ready  with  arms  and  ammunition 
to  start  at  once,  and  every  town  had  its  horse  and  rider  ready 
to  carry  the  news  to  the  next  town.  Ten  miles  an  hour  could 
easily  be  made  by  a  galloping  horse,  and  Enfield  could  have  been 
reached  within  twenty-four  hours. 

Hezekiah  Sheldon,  who  did  much  work  many  years  ago  for 
the  preservation  of  Sufifield's  local  history,  says  in  his  little  book 
that  the  Suffield  Minute  Men  marched  to  Springfield  on  the  even- 
ing of  April  20th,  and  spent  the  night  in  Springfield  and  were 
there  entertained  by  the  town  of  Springfield,  and  an  account  of 
it  made  on  the  treasurer's  book,  which  fixes  the  date. 

Surelv  a  messenger  may  have  arrived  in  Enfield  on  that 
Thursday  afternoon  as  quickly  as  he  could  have  arrived  in 
Sufiield,  and  so  Thomas  Abbe  may  have  beaten  his  drum  about 
the  church  that  afternoon.  But.  alas,  there  is  no  record  proof 
of  the-  fact  of  the  beating  of  the  drum  on  that  afternoon,  and 
the  story  rests  wholly  upon  tradition.  Mr.  Freeman  tells  me 
that  Rev.  Benjamin  F.  Taylor,  the  writer  of  the  beautiful  poem, 
credited  Aholiab  Johnson,  my  father,  with  the  information 
about  the  beating  of  the  drum  by  Captain  Abbe,  on  which  the 
famous  poem  first  published  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  in  May, 
1878,  was  founded.  Aholiab  Johnson,  as  a  lawyer,  settled  in 
Enfield  in  1840  and  died  in  1893  at  the  age  of  94  years.     For 


107 


many  years  he  was  town  clerk  of  the  town  and  judge  of  the 
Probate  Court  for  the  District  of  Enfield,  and  probably  knew 
every  man  in  town,  and  doubtless  talked  with  many  persons 
who  heard  the  drumming,  and  thus  got  the  facts  which  he 
related  at  first  hand.  Besides  this,  the  notable  story  has  been 
a  tradition  on  the  tongues  of  all  the  older  people  of  the  town 
for  several  generations  past.  No  event  founded  on  tradition 
relating  to  the  history  of  Enfield  has  a  better  foundation.  We 
have  as  good  a  right  to  believe  this  story  as  we  have  to  believe 
many  a  story  spread  on  the  records  in  writing.  A  man  can 
tell  a  lie  with  his  pen  nearly  as  easily  as  he  can  with  his  tongue, 
provided  he  can  write.  Let  us  believe  this  story  to  be  true — let 
the  cavillers  say  what  they  will. 

If  Thomas  Abbe  had  been  in  the  church  attending  to  Rev. 
Elam  Potter's  lecture,  where  the  pastor  and  deacons  doubtless 
thought  he  ought  to  have  been,  this  beautiful  statue  would  never 
have  been  erected,  and  Taylor's  poem  would  never  have  been 
written  and  published  in  the  Atlantic.  And  there  are  those  who 
claim  that  the  story  has  no  great  significance.  It  was  but  the 
beating  of  an  old  drum  about  a  new  church  141  years  ago ! 

It  is  the  boast  of  the  British  nation  that  the  drum-beat  and 
the  roaring  of  its  guns,  on  land  and  sea,  saluting  their  colors 
as  they  are  raised  at  sunrise  and  lowered  at  sunset,  never  cease; 
that  the  sound  is  continuous,  twice  daily  encircling  the  globe. 
Captain  Abbe's  drum  may  have  turned  to  dust,  and  his  good 
sword  turned  to  rust,  but  the  story  of  this  drumming  makes 
luminous  events  in  the  history  of  our  country,  that  is,  the  doings 
of  the  Minute  Men  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

The  whole  country  had  been  for  a  long  time  in  a  ferment 
and  many  rebellious  acts  had  been  committed.  The  ministers 
of  the  churches  throughout  the  country  were  foremost  in  insti' 
gating  opposition  to  the  British  rule.  The  ministers  in  those 
days  were  men  of  education  and  ability  and  exercised  a  tre- 
mendous influence  with  all  the  people.  There  were  but  few 
Tories  among  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel.  The  high  ideals 
afterward  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  in 
the  Constitution  were  the  outgrowth  of  the  teaching  of  the 
ministers  of   several  generations  of   Americans. 

The  beat  of  the  drums  and  the  roar  of  the  guns  saluting 
twice  daily  the  British  colors  the  whole  w'orld  round  boastingly 
signifies  the  power  of  the  mighty  British  nation.     The  beating 

108 


MAJOR    GENERAL    PETER    MUHLENBERG 

Statue  in  Philadelphia  City  Hall  by  J.  Otto  Schweizer 

In  1775  this  clergyman  was  preaching   in  the  Episcopal  Church  at  Woodstock 
Virginia.     He  said: 

"There  is  a  time  for  all  things — a  time  to  preach  and  a  time  to  pray;  but  there  is 
also  a  time  to  fight,  and  that  time  has  now  come!" 

Throwing  off  his  gown,  he  displayed  the  full  military  uniform  of  a  colonel,  having 
just  accepted  a  commission  from  General  Washington.  Leaving  his  pulpit,  he  went 
into  the  field  with  nearly  300  members  of  his  congregation  under  his  flag. 


{"^e^U-J.    ,  ^  .^K>OON  i^^y-^  . 


THE    AUTHOR    OF    "THE    CAPTAIN'S    DRUM." 

From  the  Portrait  by  G.  P.  A.  Healy,  1  808-1  894. 
Painted  in  1863. 


of  Thomas  Abbe's  drum  symbolizes  the  spirit  of  freedom  back 
of  it  which  permeated  every  town,  every  hamlet  of  America  and 
made  possible  America's  freedom  and  has  proved  to  the  world 
that  men  with  education  and  character  can  govern  themselves 
and  without  kings,  emperors  or  lords,  and  that  the  eight  years' 
struggle,  begun  the  day  before  Thomas  Abbe  beat  the  drum 
about  the  church  at  Enfield  and  ending  at  Yorktown,  proved  to 
the  world  for  all  generations  to  come  that  nations  can  be  free 
if  they  will. 

We  cannot  thank  Mr.  Alden  Freeman  of  East  Orange,  New 
Jersey,  too  much  for  his  generosity  and  patriotism  in  erecting 
the  beautiful  statue  commemorating  a  notable  event  in  the  history 
of  Enfield. 


RECITATION— "THE  CAPTAIN'S  DRUM." 

By  Miss  Mae  E.  McKeever,  of  East  Orange,  New  Jersey,  with  great 
dramatic  effect,  in  a  musical  voice  of  wide  range  and  rich  quality 


REMARKS  BY  THE  CHAIRiMAN,  MR.  ALLEN  B. 

HATHAWAY. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  Invited  Guests,  Fellow  Citizens: 

Enfield  is  witnessing  to-day  an  event  in  its  history  quite  as 
unique  as  the  episode  of  the  captain's  drum,  for  seldom  has  the 
Town  of  Enfield  been  asked  to  accept  any  gift  other  than  an 
increase  in  the  town's  debts. 

Ill 


We  are  g-athered  here  this  afternoon  to  view  the  unveiHng 
of  this  beautiful  memorial  and  to  accept  it  as  a  free  gift  from 
Mrs.  Joel  Francis  Freeman  and  her  family,  and  it  gives  me 
great  pleasure  to  introduce  to  you,  as  her  active  representative, 
her  son,  Mr.  Alden  Freeman  of  East  Orange,  New  Jersey. 

REMARKS  OF  ALDEN  FREEMAN  ON  BEHALF  OF  THE 

DONORS. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Selectmen  of  Enfield,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

My  speech  you  already  have  in  your  hands  in  pamphlet 
form.  The  building  of  this  memorial  has  been  a  labor  of  love. 
From  start  to  finish  there  has  been  no  jarring  note.  Of  those 
who  have  designed,  modelled  and  erected  the  monument,  each 
has  done  his  part  in  a  generous,  whole-hearted  way,  "better  than 
bargain,"  to  use  the  quaint  language  of  the  report  on  the  erection 
of  the  old  meeting-house  in  1775.  The  memorial,  as  you  see,  is 
now  practically  finished,  nearly  four  months  in  advance  of  the 
time  agreed  upon. 

This  is  a  story  told  in  stone,  not  only  of  the  Abbey  family, 
but  also  of  the  other  old  families  of  this  ancient  town.  It  tells 
the  history  of  Enfield  itself  and  in  miniature  it  also  tells  the 
storv  of  our  country.  It  tells  a  tale  that  stretches  from  the 
landing  at  Jamestown  in  1607  to  those  "continuous  woods  where 
rolls  the  Oregon"  ;  from  Plymouth  Rock  in  1620  to  the  Golden 
Gate  in  1849;  from  Connecticut's  Western  Reserve  on  the  shores 
of  Lake  Erie  to  "the  brown  coils  of  the  Rio  Grande"  ;  from  the 
Patriot  War  in  Canada  in  1838  to  the  Mexican  War  in  1848, 
and  right  down  to  the  border  troubles  of  the  present  year. 

The  donors  have  no  desire  to  exploit  either  the  Abbey 
family  or  Captain  Abbey's  branch  of  it.  This  is  merely  a  study 
of  a  typical  American  family  of  the  plain  people  whom  Lincoln 
said  he  loved  because  God  had  made  so  many  of  them.  These 
Abbeys  were  farmers,  innkeepers,  printers,  editors,  engineers, 
scientists  and  artists,  but  above  all  they  have  been  fighters  and 
patriots.  There  have  been  no  disloyalists  among  the  Abbeys. 
Nor  have  I  found  what  you  could  call  a  rich  man  among  all 
these  people.  It  seems  they  have  always  been  too  busy  with 
other  things  that  interested  them  more  to  find  time  to  acquire 
wealth. 

This  is  truly  a  memorial  service  that  we  are  holding  here 
under  these  arching  elms,  for  to-day  all  .Xbbe  descendants  are 
mourning  the  loss  of  the  most  distinguished  man  who  has  borne 

112 


the  name.  Cleveland  Abbe  died  in  Washington  a  week  ago  today. 
Except  for  Professor  Abbe  and  for  one  woman,  who  is  fortu- 
nately with  us,  this  gathering  of  the  Abbey  family  would  not  be 
possible.  When  a  young  man  Cleveland  Abbe  began  to  collect 
the  records  of  the  family.  Fifty-two  years  ago  the  author  of 
"The  History  of  Windham"  wrote  that  Mr.  Abbe  had  already 
placed  under  lasting  obligation  all  of  the  descendants  of  the 
immigrant,  John  Abbe,  by  his  contributions  of  time  and  money 
to  their  genealogy.  Cleveland  Abbe  was  the  pioneer  in  storm 
warning  away  back  in  1869.  As  a  child  I  recall  that  his  nick- 
name, "Old  Probabilities,"  was  a  household  word.  His  labors 
led  to  the  establishment  of  the  United  States  Weather  Bureau 
in  1870.  Next  he  began  the  display  of  cautionary  storm  signals 
along  the  coast  and  later  the  prediction  of  floods  in  rivers.     In 


1879  he  started  the  agitation  for  standard  time,  and  in  five  years 
he  gave  to  the  United  States  and  later  to  the  world  the  standard 
hour  meridians  now  in  universal  use.  I  will  name  only  these 
two  achievements  of  this  great  scientist  which  have  been  of 
incalculable  practical  use  to  all  farmers,  mariners,  railway  men 
and  people  generally.  In  the  midst  of  scientific  labors  of  the 
highest  importance  Professor  Abbe  always  found  time  for  his 
favorite  study  of  family  history.  He  and  his  collaborator,  Mrs. 
Nichols,  have  located  more  than  15,000  Abbey  descendants  in 
the  United  States  and  Canada,  whose  names  will  be  found  in  the 
Abbe  Genealogy  now  in  press.  Practically  all  of  these  people 
have  been  notified  of  this  gathering  here  today  and  this  is  due 
to  the  initiative  of  Cleveland  Abbe,  who  took  a  deep  interest  in 


113 


this  memorial  and  himself  selected  the  names  of  the  Windham 
Abbes  who  are  perpetuated  in  the  inscriptions. 

Just  a  word  about  my  own  little  book.  My  own  words  in 
it  are  of  small  importance,  but  I  urge  you  to  read  the  quotations. 
In  this  critical  time  of  our  country's  history  I  ask  you  to  ponder 
the  words  of  James  Otis,  of  the  Adamses,  of  Jefferson  and 
Patrick  Henry  and  all  the  revolutionary  patriots.  Here  is  a 
collection  of  the  oratory  and  eloquence  which  have  inspired  all 
our  national  life.  I  have  brought  it  right  up  to  the  present  day, 
with  words  of  Elihu  Root,  of  that  ardent  patriot,  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  of  Charles  E.  Hughes,  who  exposed  and  broke  up 
the  insurance  ring,  and  of  our  beloved  President,  Woodrow  Wil- 
son. I  ask  you  to  study  these  sayings  between  now  and  election 
day.  I  hope  that  you  will  choose  for  your  guides  the  greatest 
men  in  our  history,  Washington  and  Lincoln. 

Besides  asking  you  to  read  these  patriotic  quotations  before 
you  vote  on  Tuesday,  I  have  two  suggestions  to  make  to  the 
people  of  this  town.  In  the  first  place  I  ask  you  to  preserve 
this  venerable  building  around  which  Thomas  Abbey  beat  his 
drum  in  the  very  year,  1775.  in  which  it  was  completed.  Here 
you  possess  a  shrine  in  which  three  generations  of  your  fore- 
fathers were  baptized,  worshipped,  were  married  and  their  fune- 
rals held.  When  the  beautiful  new  church  was  built  in  1848 
this  structure  became  your  Town  Hall  and  three  succeeding 
generations  here  fulfilled  their  duties  as  free  American  citizens. 
The  New  England  town  meeting  was  the  cradle  of  American 
independence,  and  this  hall  deserves,  for  all  future  time,  to  be 
cherished  with  affection  and  with  pride  by  a  religious  and  liberty- 
loving  people,  such  as  all  your  history  has  shown  the  citizens 
of  Enfield  to  be. 

]\Iy  second  suggestion  is  a  memorial  to  Jonathan  Edwards 
on  the  site  of  the  church  which  preceded  the  old  Town  Hall. 
The  outline  of  its  walls  is.  as  you  are  well  aware,  plainly  to  be 
seen  one-third  of  a  mile  to  the  south,  opposite  the  post-oftice. 
It  was  there  that  Jonathan  Edwards  preached  his  most  famous 
sermon.  .As  you  know,  he  was  born  in  East  Windsor,  only  nine 
miles  away.  Enfield  will  honor  itself  by  erecting  a  monument  to 
the  foremost  man  that  Connecticut  has  produced,  the  greatest 
theologian  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  one  of  the  chief  fore- 
runners of  the  Revolution.  It  has  been  said  that  if  you  would 
understand  the  workings  of  the  mind  of   New  England  in  the 


114 


ENFIELD   TOWN    HALL 

"A  shrine  in  which  three  generations  of  our  forefathers  were  baptized,  worshipped, 

were  married  and  their  funerals  held." 

Phoiograph  by  de  W.  C.  Ward 


eighteenth  century  and  the  throbbing  of  its  heart,  you  must  study 
the  hfe  and  the  words  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 

Before  making  the  formal  presentation  of  this  memorial  to 
the  authorized  representative  of  the  citizens  of  the  Town  of 
Enfield  I  have  one  other  duty  to  perform  in  pursuance  of  the 
agreement  ratified  at  the  town  meeting  held  on  November  11, 
1915,  and  that  is  to  hand  this  fund  to  the  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee of  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  of  Enfield,  who  is  also 
the  chairman  of  this  meeting.  It  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  place 
the  fund  in  the  hands  of  a  man  so  efficient,  so  capable,  so  pains- 
taking and  so  agreeable  as  Mr.  Hathaway,  and  I  feel  confident 
that  the  money  will  be  wisely  invested  and  the  income  carefully 
expended  for  the  care  and  maintenance  of  the  memorial  and  its 
immediate  surroundings  on  the  town  lands. 

It  is  now  my  agreeable  duty,  on  behalf  of  my  mother,  of  my 
sister,  and  of  my  niece,  ]\Irs.  William  Thorn  Kissel,  to  present 


to  the  first  selectman  of  the  Town  of  Enfield,  this  memorial  of 
Captain  Abbey  and  tb.e  Abl)cy  family  for  the  use  and  enjoyment 
of  the  citizens  of  this  town.  My  family  hope  that  it  may  prove 
to  be  a  civic  center  which  will  unite  all  sections  of  Enfield  in  the 
efifort  to  make  your  growing  town  worthy  of  its  inspiring  past. 

116 


In  making  this  presentation  I  wish  to  express  our  appreciation 
of  the  unanimous  vote  by  which  the  citizens  of  Enfield  gave  this 
site  in  perpetuity  for  the  Abbey  Memorial  and  at  the  same  time 
entrusted  its  care  and  maintenance  to  the  First  Ecclesiastical 
Society  of  Enfield,  who  are  likewise  the  custodians  of  the  fund 
which  has  just  been  placed  in  their  keeping, 

Mr.  Selectman,  in  the  name  of  the  donors,  I  present  to  you 
as  the  representative  of  all  the  people  of  the  Town  of  Enfield 
this  Memorial  of  Thomas  Abbey,  his  ancestors  and  descendants 
of  the  Abbey  family,  to  have  and  to  hold  from  this  time  forth. 

ACCEPTANCE  SPEECH  BY  MR.  ALBERT  J.  EPSTEIN, 
FIRST  SELECTMAN  OF  ENFIELD. 

Mr.  Freeman,  it  gives  me  great  pleasure,  as  representative 
of  the  Town  of  Enfield,  in  accepting  this  most  magnificent  gift, 
a  memorial  erected  by  you  in  memory  of  one  of  our  most 
patriotic  citizens,  our  soldier  hero,  Captain  Thomas  Abbey,  who, 
when  his  country  was  in  peril,  left  his  farm  to  call  his  fellow 
citizens  to  arms.  The  citizens  of  Enfield  join  with  me  in  extend- 
ing to  you  and  yours  their  sincere  gratitude  for  your  kindly 
feeling  toward  this  town,  in  presenting  this  memorial,  erected 
in  such  historical  surroundings,  in  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
spots  in  old  New  England. 


UNVEILING  OF  THE  STATUE  OF  CAPTAIN  ABBEY. 

By  His  Great-great-great-granddaughter,  Miss  Georgiana  Abbey 

Van  Epps,  of  East  Orange,  New  Jersey, 


117 


THE   FLAG   RAISING 

Photographs  by  Albert  K.  Dawson  of  Brown  &  Dawson,  of  Stamford,  Ct. 

The  grouiJ  on  the  speakers'  stand,  from  left  to  riglit.  con- 
sists of  :\rme.  Alulford.  Rev.  ^Ir.  Cleans,  Rabhi  Wise,  Rev.  ^Ir. 
Reid.  Mr.  Johnson.  Mr.  \'erplanck.  Rev.  Alexander  Hamilton. 
]\Ir.  Epstein.  Mr.  Hathaway  and  Alden  Freeman. 


SOLO— "THE  STAR  SPANGLED  BANNER." 

Mme.  Mnlford,  accompanied  by  Gerald  ]\Iaas. 

The  two  flags  with  which  the  statue  had  been  draped  were 
given  to  Enfield  Church  and  to  the  old  Town  Hall  by  the  donors 
of  the  memorial.  During  the  singing  of  the  National  Anthem  they 
were  slowly  raised  to  the  flagstaffs  prepared  for  them  under  the 
porticos  of  the  two  venerable  buildings  so  closely  associated  with 
the  Abbey  Memorial. 


118 


ADDRESS  BY  RABBI  STEPHEN  S.  WISE,  OF  THE  FREE 

SYNAGOGUE,  NEW  YORK. 
Mr.  Chairman,  Mr.  Freeman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  have  the  distinction  this  afternoon  of  being  the  one  unique 
figure ;  I  am  not  related  to  the  Abbey  family — unfortunately  for 
the  Abbey  family.  When  I  was  asked  to-day  whether  I  was  a 
member  of  the  family  I  said  that  I  should  be  ashamed  to  belong 
to  a  family  that  counted  its  family  history  in  generations  ;  that 
my  own  family  goes  back  to  someone  whose  name  began,  as 
the  Abbey  name  begins,  with  "Ab,"  but  the  rest  of  the  family 
is    rather   different.        I   belong   to   the   Ab-raham    family;   and 


tho'  just  a  little  unhappy  that  in  my  veins  there  courses  none  of 
the  blood  of  that  family  typified  by  the  noble  presence  just 
unveiled,  on  the  other  hand,  I  like  to  think  that  even  tho'  none 
of  my  grandfathers  signed  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  one 
of  my  great-great-great-grandfathers  zvrote  the  Ten  Command- 
ments. 

It  seems  to  me,  Mr.  Freeman,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  that  the 
unveiling  exercises  of  this  monument  are  nothing  more  than  a 
prelude  to  the  great  event  which  is  to  happen  after  anqther  four 
years,  when  all  Americans — not  only  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims,  but 
Americans  of  every  blood  and  faith  and  ancestry — are  to  unite 

120 


in  commemorating  the  close  of  three  centuries — three  hundred 
years — of  noble  daring  on  the  part  of  those  men  who  were  the 
founders  of  the  America  we  love. 

My  one  qualification,  if  aught  I  have,  for  speaking  in  this 
hour — and  I  have  been  greatly  honored  by  the  invitation — is  my 


MODEL  OF  THE  SHIP  MAYFLOWER 
devised  by   the  late   James  Le  Baron  Willard,  Historian  of  the  N.  "V 

Society  of  Mayflower  Descendants. 
The  Ark  of  the  New  Covenant  of  political  and  religious  liberty  which 
was    drawn   up    and   signed    in    her   cabin  on  November    11,   1620. 

feeling  of  profound  veneration — dare  I  not  say  it? — of  spiritual 
kinship,  with  those  Biblical  figures  who  three  hundred  years 
ago  dared  the  terrors  of  the  sea,  not  that  they  might  have  some- 
thing for  themselves,  but  that  they  might  give  their  lives  more 

121 


completely  to  God.  to  freedom  and  to  righteousness.  I  always 
think  of  the  Pilgrims  as  Bible  heroes.  They  were  the  Mahomets 
of  their  day.  building  upon  Bible  truths,  upborne  by  the  Bible 
spirit. 

And  then,  if  I  may  say  so,  I  am  privileged  perhaps  to  be 
here  to-day,  because  I  am  a  churchman,  tho'  a  churchman  of  the 
older  covenant,  and  I  thank  God  as  a  churchman  that  out  of  the 
church,  the  old  meeting  house  since  1775,  there  came  the  men 
who  have  written  a  memorable  page  in  the  annals  of  Enfield, 
of  Connecticut,  of  American  history.  Back  of  the  American 
Revolution  lies  the  great  word  and  the  mighty  personalitv  of 
that  man.  whom  in  imagination  I  look  upon  at  this  moment, 
Jonathan  Edwards,  and  I  love  to  think  that  among  the  men 
whose  summons  brought  to  the  front  on  behalf  of  freedom  the 
Minute  Alen  of  a  later  generation,  was  that  great  company  of  men 
of  God  who  were  the  teachers  of  religion  in  their  dav ;  men  of 
whom  Jonathan  Mayhew.  for  example,  is  nothing  more  than  an 
outstanding  representative. 

Men  and  women — and  I  speak  particularly  to-day  to  the 
young  girls  and  young  men  and  women — piety  is  always  a  high 
virtue,  and  piety  is  never  a  higher  virtue  than  it  is  in  this 
land,  just  because  we.  are  a  land,  to  paraphrase,  "wherein  there 
are  no  ruins,"  wherein  there  are  few  ruins  :  and  piety  is  a  most 
beautiful  and  precious  thing  when  it  is  bound  up,  as  this  dav  it  is 
bound  up,  with  the  memories  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic. 
Your  poet  put  it  well — "Hallowed  ground,  where  virtue  slept 
and  valor  trod."  Alay  we  not  say  that  from  this  day  this  place 
becomes  hallowed  ground,  where  virtue  is  never  to  sleep  and 
where  valor  is  to  tread  throughout  the  ages? 

The  culminations  of  piety  are  noble  things.  It  is  ahvavs 
helpful,  sustaining,  even  exalting  to  invoke  great  memories, 
memories  of  the  immortal,  transfigured,  living  dead ;  for  that 
man,  Captain  Thomas  Abbey,  lives  as  truly  at  this  moment  as 
any  man  or  woman  to-day ;  and  I  wonder  at  this  moment  who 
of  us  will  be  living  in  memory  after  another  century  shall  have 
passed,  as  this  man  lives,  example,  exemplar,  inspiration  to  us, 
whether  or  not  of  his  own  blood,  who  view  his  noble  presence 
nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  deed  of  an  American 
man,  of  an  American  soldier  and  of  an  American  gentleman. 

And  I  ask  you  to-day.  men  and  women,  to  remember  what 
it  is  that  you  are  to  commemorate.     What  do  you  commemorate? 

122 


Do  you  wish  merely  to  extol  yourselves?  Do  you  wish  merely 
to  glorify  the  memories  of  your  forebears?  Have  you  come 
here  to  lay  a  laurel  wreath  upon  the  memory  of  this  man  because 
he  was  of  your  own  bond  or  blood?  Or  have  you  come  here  as 
I  believe  you  have  come,  and  as  I  know  the  donors  of  this 
beautiful  memorial  would  have  you  come,  in  order  that  you  may, 
as  it  were,  renew  the  spirit  that  moved  this  man  in  his  immortal 
ministrv? 


^flj^S^gip^^** 


'iT 


.«r 


m 


\ 


\ 


It  was  a  great  poet  of  another  day  who  said  that  in  order 
to  acquire  the  things  that  we  have  inherited  from  our  fathers, 
we  must  in  turn  and  in  our  generation,  earn  them  over  again. 
Men  and  women,  everything  depends  on  how  ancestry  is  used, 
whether  ancestry  be  a  source  of  noble  pride  or  of  ignoble  pride ; 
whether  you  value  your  ancestry  as  a  spirit  of  achievement — 
for  if  vou  do  not.  if  you  look  back  upon  your  pride  merely  as 
something  that   makes   you   a   little   better   than   your   neighbor, 


123 


rather  than  moves  you  to  be  better  and  to  do  better  than  your 
neighbor,  then  your  pride  is  ignoble,  and  instead  of  being  en- 
nobhng,  is  unennobhng  and  discrowning.  The  question  is,  how 
will  you  view  your  ancestry — and  it  is  a  great  ancestry,  you  are 
right — remember  the  ancestry  that  links  you  with  that  figure 
means  not  privilege  but  duty,  means  obligation,  means  solemn  re- 
sponsibility, means  that  in  every  generation  his  children,  and  his 
children's  children's  children  must  rededicate  themselves  anew  to 
the  things  for  which  he  lived,  for  which  he  fought,  and  the  mem- 
ory of  which  his  noble  figure  recalls. 

I  want  to  have  you  remember  to-day,  men  and  women, 
that  Captain  Abbey  and  the  men  of  his  day  and  generation  were 
warriors ;  they  were  warriors  brave  and  unafraid,  and  yet  they 
were  more  than  warriors.  I  am  not  of  their  blood  and  bond, 
but  I  know  them  well ;  I  have  studied  their  lives,  I  have  pon- 
dered upon  the  motives  that  impelled  them,  and  if  you  ask  me, 
who  chance  to  be  your  visitor  to-day,  to  describe  this  man  and 
the  men  who  stood  with  him,  I  tell  you  that  they  were  what  the 
Pilgrim  fathers  had  been  before  them ;  they  were  a  company 
of  spiritual — of  spiritual,  mark  you — pioneers.  The  America 
of  1620,  the  America  of  Plymouth  Rock,  was  nothing  more  than 
a  prelude.  It  wasn't  to  pick  a  new  geographical  designation ; 
it  didn't  mean  that  a  new  continent  was  to  be  unfolded  and 
explored;  the  America  of  1620  and  the  America  of  1775  meant 
that  a  company  of  men  moved  by  the  spirit  of  God  were  ready 
to  enter  upon  a  great  spiritual  enterprise.  I  don't  use  the  term 
political,  or  national,  or  social  or  civic,  because  it  was  more 
than  all  of  these  things;  it  was  above  all  things  a  spiritual  enter- 
prise and  a  spiritual  conquest ;  and  the  America  of  the  Revolu- 
tion was  another  spiritual  conquest,  and  the  America  of  1861-6:? 
for  which  these  fine  men  fought,  for  which  these  brave  men 
bled,  the  America  of  1861  was  yet  another  spiritual  enterprise. 
We  fought  not  for  the  South,  nor  against  the  South ;  we  fought 
— these  men  fought — for  a  new  rebirth  of  freedom  for  America 
and  all  the  world. 

And  the  America  of  the  future — will  we  dare  to  make  that 
a  spiritual  enterprise?  We  had  to  conquer  the  mother  land  in 
order  to  create  the  Republic ;  the  question  now  faces  us,  will  we 
be  great  enough  to  conquer  ourselves  in  order  to  re-create  the 
Republic.  What  is  this  new  America,  of  which  we  ought  to 
be  the  authors,  as  this  man  was  one  of  the  authors  of  the  America 

124 


Photographed    from    the    Belfry   of  Enfield  Church  by  Wm.  Bradbury  Abbey 
during  Rabbi  Wise's  address.     In  the  background  the  Connecticut  River  and  Valley. 


of  his  day?  What  are  to  be  the  ideals  of  America?  1  found 
my  inspiration  to-day — or  rather  I  found  a  confirmation  of  my 
own  thought — in  the  beautiful  badges  worn  by  the  gentlemen  of 
the  Order  of  Cincinnati.  I  ask  you  to  remember  the  primary 
meaning,  not  the  etymological  significance,  of  the  term  "res 
publica."  Res  publica  is  a  Latin  phrase  which  is  to  be  translated, 
"the  common  way"  or  "the  common  weal."  and  the  question  that 
the  America  of  1916  faces  is  this:  Do  we  continue  to  cherish 
the  ideal  of  the  common  weal,  the  ideal  of  the  country  which  is 
to  be  served  only  if  needs  must  in  war.  but  to  be  served  all  the 
time,  every  day  and  every  hour,  by  the  virtues  of  peace,  by  the 
valors  of  peace  and  by  the  noblenesses  of  the  light  of  peace. 
Do  you  understand  what  the  Republic  nreans — the  republic  means 
law,  one  law  for  all  men,  and  more  than  one  law,  one  unvarying, 
inflexible  justice ;  but,  men  and  women,  we  are  more  than  a 
republic,  we  are  a  democratic  republic,  we  are  a  self-governing, 
a  self -ruling  republic,  and  self-government  involves  two  things ; 
first,  that  we  fit  ourselves  to  be  the  rulers  of  the  Republic,  and 
in  the  next  place  that  we  rule  the  Republic  not  in  our  own 
interest,  not  in  our  own  behalf,  not  in  order  to  aggrandize  some 
one  sect,  not  in  order  to  further  our  own  endeavors,  not  in 
order  to  obtain  guerdon  for  some  person  or  combination  or 
group ;  are  we  great  enough  to  rule  ourselves  in  the  interests 
of  the  Republic  which  this  great  figure  helped  to  create,  and 
which,  with  God's  help,  we  are  resolved  to  ennoble  with  our 
own  lives. 

The  time  has  come  for  the  building  of  the  new  America, 
and  in  order  that  there  may  be  a  new  America,  there  must  be  an 
understanding,  there  must  be  a  conciliation,  there  must  be,  if  I 
may  use  a  Xew  Testament  term,  an  irenikon  between  the  men 
and  women  of  the  older  order,  the  children  and  grandchildren 
of  Thomas  Abbey  on  the  one  hand,  and  men  and  women  who, 
like  myself,  have  come  to  America  because  they  chose  America, 
because  freedom  was  not  in  the  old  world,  for  we  came  to 
America  not  that  we  might  amass  wealth — none  of  this  man's 
forebears  came  to  America  in  order  to  amass  a  fortime — God's 
whisper  came  to  the  fathers  of  this  man  and  God's  whisper  came 
to  my  fathers,  and  we  have  come  to  America  in  just  the  same 
spirit,  because  life  is  more  than  living,  or  a  living,  and  because 
in  America,  tho'  not  in  America  as  it  is  but  in  America  as  it  may 
yet  become,  in  the  America  that  we  ought  to  refashion,  in  the 

126 


America  known  in  all  the  world,  men  can  rule  themselves,  we 
can  be  self-governing,  we  can  minister  to  the  welfare  of  all,  a 
land  in  which  there  is  one  justice  for  all  men.  This  is  the  ideal 
that  is  our  own,  and  I  wonder  w-hether  I  am  not  speaking  out 
of  the  heart  of  the  donor  of  this  gift,  whether  I  do  not  convey 
your  thought  to  this  company  of  men  and  women,  when  I  say  to 
you,  who  are  the  new  settlers  of  the  Republic,  America  does  not 
ask  of  you  that  you  shall  forswear  the  old  loves,  the  old  loyalties. 
If  you  are  French,  German,  Polish,  Slavic.  Italian  or  Spanish, 
love  and  cherish  all  those  spiritual  possessions,  all  those  high 
and  exalting  memories  that  you  have  brought  with  you  from  the 
old  world,  but  use  them,  not  for  the  sake  of  Germany,  of  Britain, 
or  France  or  Russia  or  Austria  or  Italy  or  Turkey;  use  them 
for  the  interest  of  the  land  which  deserves  and  has  our  supreme 
loyalty,  the  American  Republic. 

America — how  wide  its  domains!  And  yet  it  is  not  great 
enough  to  harbor  a  single  divided  allegiance.  There  is  no  room 
in  America  for  the  hyphenated  American,  no  German-Americans, 
no  English-Americans,  no  French-Americans ;  the  only  American 
is  the  American- American,  the  American  who  sets  his  allegiance 
to  America  above  every  other  loyalty,  above  every  other  passion. 
I  sometimes  say  to  my  friends  that  I  have  tw^o  religions ;  the 
one  is  the  religion  of  Israel,  the  other  is  the  religion  of  America. 
America  must  become  anew  to  us,  a  religion,  a  faith,  an  ideal, 
the  deepest  and  the  holiest  passion  of  our  lives. 

Mr.  Chairman,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  must  not  detain  you 
longer ;  only  one  word  let  me  add. 

I  love  to  think  that  this  memorial  is  not  to  be  of  the  past 
long;  it  is  to  be  a  help,  it  is  to  be  an  incentive  for  the  present; 
it  is  to  be  a  stimulus  and  inspiration  for  the  future:  the  past 
belonged  to  Thomas  Abbey,  his  kinsmen,  the  men  of  his  own 
blood  and  bond;  but  the  future  belongs  to  all  the  men  and  all 
the  women  and  all  the  children  of  Enfield;  the  past  belonged  to 
the  builders ;  the  future  is  to  be  the  inalienable  possession  of  the 
rebuilders  of  this  community,  and  I  wonder  if  I  do  not  read 
aright  the  spirit  of  ]\Ir.  Freeman  and  his  mother  and  sister  when 
I  say  thev  would  be  sore  disappointed  if  this  spot,  hallow^ed  by 
ennobling  memories,  does  not  become  the  center  of  the  spiritual 
life  of  this  town.  Great  ideals  and  hallowed  memories  are  cen- 
tered here  and  every  man.  every  woman  and  every  child  in  Enfield 
should  feel,  "This  memorial  is  mine,  this  man  and  this  memory 


127 


has  become  a  part  of  my  life,''  and  thus  will  this  memorial  be 
the  new  center  of  the  new  life  of  this  city. 

A  gentleman  a  moment  ago  used  a  term  which  I  as  a  teacher 
of  religion  and  as  an  American  have  no  right  to  have  heard 
without  adding  my  own  thought  and  my  own  word,  for  there 
are  times  when  a  man  must  speak  if  he  w\\\  be  true  to  himself, 
true  to  his  faith  and  to  his  own  soul. 

It  is  true  Thomas  Abbey  was  not  too  proud  to  fight,  and 
the  men  who  stood  by  the  side  of  Thomas  Abbey  were  not  too 
proud  to  fight,  but  Thomas  Abbey  was  too  proud  to  fight  for 
anything  less  than  the  right,  for  the  right  as  he  saw  it ;  for  the 
great  ideal,  the  ideal  of  liberty.  This  man  was  a  better  English- 
man than  the  George  who  sat  upon  the  English  throne;  this 
man  and  Samuel  Adams,  and  John  Adams,  and  Hancock,  and 
Franklin,  and  Washington  and  Hamilton  and  Jefiferson ;  these 
men  were  the  great  Englishmen  of  their  day ;  they  and  the  Pitts, 
not  the  Georges. 

He  wasn't  too  proud  tc  fight  for  the  right,  but  as  I  look 
upon  that  noble  fact,  but  as  I  look  upon  that  noble  face  I  dare 
to  say  of  him  that  he  was  too  proud  to  fight  for  the  wrong;  he 
was  too  proud  to  fight  for  the  sake  of  fighting;  and  I  love  to 
think  that  if  he  were  alive  to-day  he  would  say:  "We  will  fight, 
for  an  ideal  as  great  as  America,  if  fight  we  must  we  will  fight 
for  America,  the  America  of  our  lives,  of  our  hopes  and  our 
dreams  and  ideals,  but  we  will  fight  for  nothing  less,"  and  if 
these  warriors  of  yesterday  were  living  they  would  become  war- 
riors in  the  new  cause,  the  cause  that  America  is  to  lead,  the 
cause  in  the  leading  of  which  America  is  to  achieve  a  new 
dienitv,  a  new  glorv,  and  a  fadeless  immortalitv ;  a  war  against 
war,  that  is  unjust,  that  is  unrighteous,  that  is  unhallowed. 

Soldier  of  God.  Pilgrim  of  God,  Maker  of  the  Republic,  we 
salute  thee  !  Let  thy  spirit  rest  upon  this  company,  upon  this 
communitv.  upon  the  State  and  commonwealth  of  Connecticut, 
upon  the  America  which  you  gave  us,  you  and  like-minded  men  ; 
the  America  which  we  this  day  solemnly  resolve  that  we  will 
hand  down  to  our  children  and  our  children's  children  unstained, 
luimarred  and  unpolluted,  an  America  worthy  of  you.  your  deeds, 
your  life,  your  memory. 


128 


SHERRY  E. 


FRY, 

Sculptor 


de  VC'.  C.  WARD, 

Photographer 


Daniel  Chester  French,  whose  first  public  work  was  "The  Minute  Man,"  unveiled  at  Concord  Bridge 
on  April  19,  1875,  loaned  Mr.  Fry  the  Colonial  costume  used  in  modeling  this  statue 


ADDRESS    BY    WILLIAM    E.    VERPLANCK,    ESQ..    OF 
MOUNT  GULIAN.  FISHKILL-ON-HUDSON,  NEW  YORK. 

Mr.   Chairman,  Ladies  and   Gentlemen,   and  Mr.   Freeman,   our 
Host: 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  be  present  here  on  this  fine 
Indian  summer  day.  I  feel  favored  in  being  numbered  among 
the  guests  of  Mr.  Freeman,  who  have  gathered  to  do  honor  to 
the  memory  of  his  ancestor,  Thomas  Abbey,  whose  statue  has 
just  been  unveiled — an  impressive  figure  it  is. 

Before   leaving   New   York   this  morning   I   took  breakfast 

with   one   of   the   architects   who   designed   the   splendid   exedra 

which  forms  a  fine  setting,  and  he.  a  New  England  man,  told  me 


MOUNT  GULIAN 
Showing  at  the  right  the  addition  built  in  1804. 


that  Enfield  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  New  England  villages 
and  he  described  its  position  and  other  attractions.  I  now  see 
that  he  did  not  at  all  exaggerate.  We  Hudson  River  people 
have  no  such  villages.  It  was  not  because  we  did  not  like  them, 
but  it  was  due  to  the  different  way  in  which  our  region  was 
settled.  All  along  the  river  were  great  tracts  of  several  thousand 
acres  each,  such  as  one  still  sees  in  the  Southern  States.  Each 
estate  or  plantation  was  self -maintained  and  self-sufficient. 
There  was  no  need  of  a  village  and  those  that  sprang  up  at  cross- 
roads were  frowned  upon  by  the  landowners.  But  now  that 
most  of  these  Hudson  River  estates  have  been  broken  up  into 
much    smaller   holdings,   villages   of   considerable   size   have   ap- 

130 


peared  in  the  natural  order  of  things,  in  which  we  miss  the 
broad  ehn-hned  streets  and  picturesque  greens  of  the  New 
England  villages. 

You  have  heard  to-day  of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  and 
of  Thomas  Abbey  being  a  member  of  it  and  of  the  \'erplanck 
mansion  at  Fishkill-on-Hudson  being  the  site  where  it  was 
organized  on  May  13,  1783.  This  old  house  was  built  early  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  some  time  before  the  French  and  Indian 
War,  by  Gulian  \^erplanck,  a  merchant  of  New  York,  and  named 
Mount    Gulian    after    his    grandfather,    who    with    his    partner. 


'-■^-^Z^gk  .-■■■  V-,  St  .  A..  -  -'fe .  --rn*.    ?J?^  '-.-(-^ 

The  room  in  which  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  was  formed. 


Francis  Rombout,  of  French  extraction,  had  bought  the  land 
on  which  the  house  stands  from  the  Wappinger  Indians^a  tract 
of  about  80,000  acres — and  the  Indian  title,  a  few  years  after, 
was  confirmed  by  James  II  in  1685.  The  Indians  were  per- 
mitted and  encouraged  to  remain  upon  the  land,  where  they 
trapped  beavers,  raccoons,  weasles.  bears  and  other  fur-bearing 
animals  for  the  proprietors  who  carried  on  trade  in  furs  and 
peltries  at  New  Amsterdam,  shipping  them  to  England  and  the 
Continent.  The  Indians  were  always  treated  fairly  by  the  Hud- 
son River  landowners,  and  there  were  no  wars  or  serious  dis- 
sensions. 


131 


The  old  house  of  which  I  am  now  the  owner  stands  on  the 
east  side  of  Newburg  Bay,  opposite  the  city  of  Xewburg.  The 
entire  region  is  replete  with  historic  sites  and  associations.  The 
mansion  was  occupied  during  the  years  1782-83  by  Baron  Steuben 
as  a  headquarters  by  voluntary  cession  of  its  then  owner,  Samuel 
Verplanck,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Safety 
in  the  early  part  of  the  war,  but  who,  because  of  age  and  ill- 
health,  had  retired  from  active  life.  Steuben,  as  you  all  will 
recall,  was  a  German  and  had  been  in  the  army  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  under  whom  he  had  become  a  valuable  ofificer,  par- 
ticularly as  disciplinarian  and  tactician.  But  Steuben  came  to  us 
wholly  without  King  Frederick's  aid  or  suggestion.  He  came 
after  talking  with  Franklin  and  Deane,  our  commissioners  at 
Paris,  where  Steuben  met  them  on  his  travels,  for  Frederick 
had  given  him  leave  of  absence,  the  Seven  Years'  War  being 
over.  This  is  not  the  time  to  tell  all  the  good  Steuben  did  in 
our  cause  in  drilling  our  raw  troops,  etc.  He  took  part  in 
forming  the  Order  of  the  Cincinnati  with  Washington  and  Knox, 
whose  headquarters  were  nearby — on  the  opposite  bank  of  the 
river,  near  Newburg.  It  was  there,  too,  that  the  army  was  dis- 
banded and  that  Washington  refused  the  crown.  A  few  miles 
below  is  West  Point  and  Constitution  Island,  where  the  chain 
was  stretched  across  the  river.  Close  by,  in  the  Highlands,  are 
Forts  Montgomery  and  Clinton.  At  old  Fishkill  Village  large 
bodies  of  troops  were  stationed  throughout  the  war  and  Wash- 
ington went  there  frequently.  The  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution  have  marked  the  historic  sites  with  appropriate 
tablets. 

I  extend  an  invitation  to  all  present  to  visit  the  region  and  I 
assure  you  of  a  welcome  at  the  Steuben  headquarters.  My  wife 
had  an  ancestor  from  Connecticut,  Ephraim  Kirby,  who  became 
a  member  of  the  Cincinnati  Society  and  she  has  a  letter  of  his 
which  he  wrote  to  Reynold  Marvin,  of  Litchfield,  whose  daugh- 
ter Ruth  he  afterwards  married,  and  whither  he  returned  to 
practice  law  and  became  the  first  law  reporter  in  the  United 
States.  In  his  letter  he  tells  some  of  the  causes  which  actuated 
the  ofificers  in  forming  the  society.  The  letter  was  first  published 
in  the  New  England  Magazine  in  some  articles  which  I  wrote 
on  the  historic  homesteads  in  the  neighborhood  of  Fishkill. 
These  magazine  articles  appeared  in  March,  1895,  and  in  August. 
1896. 

132 


BARON    STEUBEN 

The  Statue  by  Albert  laegers  in  front  of  the  \X^hite  House  in  Washington 


133 


Kirby  writes  from  Saratoga,  23d  June,  1783,  as  follows: 
"The  Army  are  at  last  disbanded,  all  except  the  men  who 
were  enhsted  for  three  years,  and  a  sufficient  number  of  officers 
to  command  them.  This  was  determined  by  agreement  among 
the  oflficers,  uniess  where  a  sufficient  number  could  not  agree,  by 
lot.  It  has  fallen  to  my  share  to  remain  for  one.  However, 
I  have  the  most  earnest  expectations  of  being  soon  after  them. 
"The  ingratitude  and  villainous  conduct  of  the  country  have 
occasioned  the  officers  of  the  army  to  come  into  an  agreement  to 
assemble  annually  by  Lines  in  their  respective  States,  and  the 
whole  triennially  at  some  convenient  place  near  the  middle  of 


i.'^dC^^Vt'V^.X^'^ 


»!rT"'«r»»i^'.^—.., 


MOUNT   GULIAN 
Showing  the  original  house  built  about  1740  by  Gulian  V'erplanck,  grandson  of  the 
original  proprietor  of  the  same  name,  who  bought  the  land  from  the  Indians  in  1683 


the  United  States  to  consult  on  matters  of  common  concern. 
They  have  also  established  a  fund  composed  of  one  month's  pay 
from  each  officer  and  deposited  in  the  care  of  a  committee  for 
the  purpose  of  relieving  the  necessities  of  any  distressed  officer, 
his  widow  or  orphans. 

"The  army  find  that  the  common  acts  of  humanity  are  not 
to  be  expected  from  the  country  they  have  rescued  from  tyranny 
and  that  no  reliance  can  be  placed  on  those  contracts  and  solemn 
obligations :  they  are  therefore  drove  to  this  expedient  to  secure 
themselves  in  some  measure  against  the  miseries  of  poverty." 

It  is  likely  that  Thomas  Abbev  was  at  the   Steuben  head- 


134 


quarters  during  his  career  as  an  officer  and  also  knew  Colonel 
Kirby.  Ephraim  Kirby  became  an  officer  in  a  Rhode  Island 
regiment  but  after  the  war  returned  to  Litchfield  and  married 
Ruth  Marvin.  One  of  his  descendants,  David  Kirby,  of  New 
York,  holds  the  insignia  and  other  evidences  of  membership  m 
the  Society. 

In  closing,  for  the  time  for  the  train  is  drawing  near,  I 
wish  to  repeat  to  all  my  invitation  to  visit  the  Cincinnati  mansion 
and  the  beautiful  region  of  the  Highlands  of  the  Hudson,  through 
which  passes  a  fine  State  road,  on  the  line  of  the  old  Albany- 
New  York  turnpike,  near  which  the  old  house  stands. 


CERTIFICATE   OF    MEMBERSHIP 

In  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  signed  by  George  Washington  as  President,  and 

General  Knox  as  Secretary,  December  10,  1785. 


THE  BENEDICTION 

Was  pronounced  bv  Rev.  Oliver  W.  Means,  of  Hartford,  pastor 

of  Enfield  Church.   1888-1901. 


135 


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136 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

Wearing  the  order  of  the  Cincinnati,  which  has  descended  to  his  great-grandson,  Rev.  Alexander 

Hamilton,  Chaplain  of  the  N.  Y.  Society  of  the  Cincinnati. 

From  the  painting  by  Edgar  Brown  Smith. 


UST  OF  THE   155   PASSENGERS   ON   THE 
ABBEY  MEMORIAL  TRAIN, 

New  York  to  Enfield  Bridge.  November  4,   1916. 

Rev.  Alexander  Hamilton,  Chaplain  N.  Y.  State  Society  of 
the  Cincinnati ;  John  B.  Lord,  Charles  A.  Rose,  Henry  Justus 
Storrs,  W.  Lanier  Washington,  John  P.  H.  de  Windt,  William 
W.  Taulman,  Thomas  J.  Bonnell,  Matthew  Hinman,  Walter 
Marvin,  Nicholas  A.  Lowe,  William  Decatur  Parsons,  Frank 
Bowman,  Major  Charles  Elliot  Warren,  James  Van  Dyk,  David 
Beatty  Idell,  Henry  Preble,  Chandler  Smith,  William  H.  Ad- 
doms  2d,  Ward  Belknap,  Captain  J.  M.  Andrews,  Dr.  George 
Trotter  Tyler,  George  L.  Storer,  Williamson  Thomas,  Edward 
G.  Rollins,  Henry  W.  Raymond,  Francis  R.  Stoddard,  Richard 
H.  Gaines,  Richard  W.  Withington,  William  Pike  Glenney,  John 
Higgin,  Walter  Byron  Jones,  xAlden  Freeman,  Frederick  C. 
Torrey. 

All  of  those  named  above  are  members  of  the  Society  of 
the  Cincinnati.  Other  members  of  the  Cincinnati  who  attended 
the  exercises  were  Louis  R.  Cheney,  Charles  E.  Jackson,  E. 
Kent  Hubbard  and  John  Henry  Livingston,  who,  with  Mrs.  Liv- 
ingston, motored  from  their  historic  home  on  the  Hudson, 
"Clermont,"  for  which  Robert  Fulton  named  his  first  steam- 
boat. 

Captain  Richard  Henry  Greene,  founder  of  the  Society  of 
Mayflower  Descendants,  and  Mrs.  Greene ;  Mrs.  L.  Nelson 
Nichols,  author  of  "The  Abbe-Abbey  Genealogy" ;  Edward  G. 
Nichols,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Decatur  M.  Sawyer,  Dr.  Appleton  Mor- 
gan, Sherry  E.  Fry,  Ernest  F.  Lewis,  Edwin  Shuttleworth, 
Mr.  and  ]\Irs.  Grosvenor  S.  Wright,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Oliver  J. 
\\'ells,  Mrs.  Charles  Lewis  Johnson,  Mrs.  Chauncey  Marshall, 
Miss  Edith  G.  Marshall,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  W.  Romeyn, 
Mrs.  G.  C.  Archer  and  two  friends  from  Hazelton,  Pa. ;  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  S.  Carman  Harriot,  Rev.  Robert  W.  Mark,  pastor 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Woodbridge,  N.  J.,  and  Mrs. 
Mark;  Rev.  Cornelius  Brett.  D.  D.,  ])astor  Bergen  Reformed 
Church  of  Jersey  City,  N.  J.,  and  Mrs.  ih-ett;  Herbert  L.  I'.ridg- 
man,  editor  Brooklyn  Standard  Union;  Ira  H.  Brainerd,  Miss 
Brainerd,  Henry  F.  Bell,  James  Boyd,  president  Alumni  .Asso- 
ciation of  New  York  University;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robert  W. 
Higbie,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Edwards  Hall  Rockwell.  Mrs.  Maurice 
Bouvier,    William   P.    H.    Bacon,    Mr.   and   Mrs.    Henry    Bancel 

138 


Binsse  and  son,  De  Witt  C.  Ward,  Miss  Remie  Ward.  Dr. 
Morris  Lee  King,  Miss  Jean  Macgowan,  Willis  A.  Voorhees  and 
son  Miss  Gail  A.  Treat,  founder  of  the  Society  ot  Descendants 
of  Colonial  Governors;  Mrs.  Robert  B.  Treat  and  Robert  B. 
Treat  Jr.,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Julian  A.  Gregory.  Mr.  and  ^Irs. 
Tracy  Lanterman,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Unwood  C.  Gillis,  Mr.  and 
Mrs  Frank  H.  Jamison  and  the  Misses  Jamison.  ^Irs.  Florence 
P.  Paulson,  Herbert  Smith,  John  A.  Higson,  J.  A.  Macdonell, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  Ogden  Wiley,  Miss  Annie  C.  Ouimby, 
Ocrden    Halsted    Bowers,   the    Misses   Bowers,    Mrs.    Alfred   H. 


CLERMONT,  TIVOLUON-HUDSON,  N.  Y. 
Thehomeof  John  Henry  Uvingston,grea^great,great,great.grandsonofRobertLm^^^^ 
ston,  1st  Lord  of  Livingston  Manor,  great^great-grandson  ffPh.hp  Livings  on  s.gner 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  great-grandson  of  Chancellor  Robert  R.  Liv- 
ingston, the  associate  of  Robert  Fulton,  who  named  the  first  steamboat  after  this  house, 
wSh  ;as  built  in  1730  by  Robert  Livingston,  son  of  the  1st  Lord  of  the  Manor. 

Thacher.  Mrs.  Thomas  D.  Webb,  Mrs.  William  Cooper,  Miss 
Emma  Cooper,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Benjamin  Shepard.  ^Ir.  and  Mrs. 
Frederick  W\  Kelsev,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frederick  T.  Kelsey, 
Ronald  B.  Kelsey,  Miss  Susan  Withington,  Albert  K.  Dawson, 
Mr  and  Mrs.  John  E.  Mitchell,  Mrs.  James  E.  Pope,  Miss 
Gertrude  Chittick,  V.  David  Newman,  Miss  Hall,  Walter  Abbe, 
Miss  Elizabeth  K.  Abbe,  Mrs.  Hubert  Howson  Miss  Helen 
Elizabeth  Howson,  Miss  Harriet  Colgate  Abbe  William  Abbe, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  Bradbury  Abbey,  Rev.  Edward  W.  Abbey, 

139 


Miss  Lucile  Abbey,  Stuart  B.  Reynolds,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lorenzo 
H.  Abbey,  Ralph  H.  Abbey,  Mrs.  Ella  Abbey  White,  Mrs.  Joel 
Francis  Freeman,  Mrs.  R.  T.  \'an  Epps,  Miss  Georgiana  Abbey 
Van  Epps,  Miss  Susan  Armstrong,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frederick 
R.  Maddock,  Gaetano  Federici,  Mrs.  Florence  Mulford  Hunt, 
Gerald  Maas,  Miss  Mae  E.  McKeever,  Miss  Jennie  Waterman, 
Miss  Justine  Dorothy  Wise,  Rabbi  Stephen  S.  Wise  and  Airs. 
Wise,  Thomas  C.  Gilchrist,  John  W.  Daly,  Benjamin  McGuire, 
August  C.  Peterson,  Miss  Rose  Galligan,  Miss  Bridget  Gal- 
ligan  and  six  others  whose  names  we  failed  to  record. 

Others  who  attended  the  exercises  included  Mrs.  Frances 
Louise  Abbe  Boise,  of  Ansonia,  Connecticut;  Miss  Bertha  B. 
Bartlett,  of  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  and  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Nathan  G. 
Estes,  of  Newport,  Rhode  Island. 

Mention  should  be  made  of  the  gracious  offer  by  the  ladies 
of  the  Enfield  Church  to  provide  luncheon  in  the  church  parlors 
for  the  out-of-town  guests,  who  were  unable  to  accept  their 
hospitality  on  account  of  the  short  stop  of  the  special  train.  All 
of  the  party,  however,  partook  of  the  hospitality  of  the  gen- 
erous automobile  owners  whose  cars  met  the  train  at  Enfield 
Bridge. 

At  the  exercises  Chief  of  Police  J.  H.  Callahan  was  ably 
assisted  by  the  local  and  State  police.  Thanks  are  also  due  to 
the  members  of  the  Enfield  Hose  Company  and  to  the  capable 
parking  committee.  The  seating  arrangements  on  the  platform 
were  admirable,  separate  sections  being  allotted  and  plainly 
marked  for  the  clergy,  the  Grand  Army  P-ost,  the  Daughters  of 
the  American  Revolution,  the  members  of  the  Abbe  Family, 
the  Woman's  Club  and  the  senior  class  of  the  Enfield  High 
School. 

The  clergymen  present  included  Rev.  Thomas  J.  Preston  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  Rev.  R.  Russ  Judd  of  the  Episcopal,  Rev. 
William  S.  Voorhees  of  the  Presbyterian.  Rev.  J.  Howard  Tait 
of  the  United  Presbyterian.  Rev.  Harvey  C.  Dorr  of  the  Metho- 
dist, all  of  Thompsonville;  Rev.  Thomas  Tyrie  of  the  Methodist 
Church  in  Hazardville,  Rev.  C.  E.  Hesselgrave  and  Rev.  C.  U. 
Calderwood  of  the  Congregational  in  South  I\Linchester,  Conn. ; 
Rev.  Oliver  W.  Means  of  the  Congregational  Church  in  Hart- 
ford, and  Rev.  David  C.  Reid,  pastor  of  tlie  Congregational 
Church  in  Enfield,  who  was  a  classmate  of  President  Wilson  at 
Princeton,  and  is  the  author  of  various  works  on  sociological  and 
economic  problems. 


140 


MISS    HARRIET  COLGATE  ABBE 

Miss  Abbe  and  Mrs.  Howson  are  sisters 
of  the  late  Cleveland  Abbe,  Walter 
Abbe,  and  Dr.  Robert  Abbe. 


WALTER   ABBE 
Owner  of  "Dog  Hill,"  the  Abbe  home- 
stead at  Windham,  Ct.,  which  belonged 
to    his    grandfather,    Moses    Cleveland 
Abbe. 


MRS.  HUBERT    HOWSON    (Helen  Abbe) 
From  the  painting  by  the  late  John  W.  Alexander 


Captain  Abbey 

and  Enfield's 

Municipal 

Christmas  Tree, 

1916 


nil  lowmtAiiirvv^s  BViLi  IN  \r(5'm  \saac  k\b^^ 

AND  SVCOiL-DEDTH-E  CLiyRCH  WHICH  STOOn  C 
ihi  .XlxK  ONETHiRL)  MILE  TO  THl^  SOVTIt  'I  i 'iFH 
•  IViy  8  1Y41J0NA.TI-IAN  EDV/ARDS  lHU;ACH!ni  THi-  i->  \  0> 


LETTERING   AND   DETAILS   OF   THE   BASE   OF  THE   PEDESTAL 


JONATHAN   EDWARDS'S   MOST   NOTABLE    SERMON, 

"Sinners  in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry  God." 

By   J.   Warren  Johnson. 

On  the  8th  dav  of  July,  1/41,  Jonathan  Edwards  preached 
the  most  noted  sermon  extant  in  the  English  language  at  this 
day,  on  "Sinners  in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry  God,"  in  the  httle 
church,  40  by  45  feet,  standing  on  the  Green  nearly  one-half 
a  mile  south  of  the  present  church  in  front  of  my  home.  For 
nearly  thirty-five  years  after  that  it  was  the  Church  of  the  First 
Society  of  Enfield.  Some  of  the  timbers  of  that  church  that 
echoed  the  fearful  words  of  that  sermon  are  still  in  existence. 

I  have  said  that  this  sermon  was  the  most  noted  sermon 
extant  in  the  English  language.  Enfield  is  known  and  noted 
nearlv  as  much  by  it  as  it  is  by  its  most  beautiful  street  and  by 
its  church,  which  is  said  to  be  the  finest  example  of  Colonial 
Church  architecture,  and  you  will  find  in  Ian  Maclaren's  "Beside 
the  Bonnie  Brier  Bush.""  that  Lachlan  Campbell,  after  Marget 
Howe  had  written  the  letter  to  Flora  and  got  Lachlan's  approval, 
"cleaned  and  trimmed  with  anxious  hand  a  lamp  that  was  kept 
for  show  and  had  never  been  used,"  and  selected  from  his  books 
Edwards'  "Sinners  in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry  God"  and  "Coles 
on  the  Divine  Sovereignty,"  and  on  them  had  laid  the  large  family 
Bible  on  which  he  set  the  lamp  in  the  window,  and  every  night 
till  Flora  returned  the  light  shone  down  the  path  that  ascended 
to  her  home,  "like  the  divine  love  from  the  open  door  of  our 
Father's   House." 

A  most  dramatic  description  of  the  scenes  of  that  8th  day 
of  July,  1741,  is  fortunately  preserved  for  us  in  the  Diary  of 
Rev.  Stephen  Williams  of  Longmeadow,  as  well  as  in  the  tradi- 
tions handed  down  to  us  by  descendants  of  those  who  were 
present. 

Several  years  since  Dr.  E.  F.  Parsons  (blessed  be  his 
memory)  went  to  Longmeadow  with  me  and  through  the 
courtesy  of  Prof.  Wm.  B.  Medlicott.  of  Harvard,  and  his  wife, 
we  were  permitted  to  see  the  diaries  of  Rev.  Stephen  Williams, 
and  we  found  the  account  of  that  day,  but  woe  betided  us.  for 
we  could  read  hardly  a  word  of  it,  so  execrable  was  the  pen- 
manship. So  one  day  I  got  Mr.  James  Allen  Kibbe,  the 
genealogist  and  expert  at  deciphering  ancient  manuscripts,  to  go 
to   Longmeadow   with   me   and   we   spent   a   long   time   copying 

143 


the  writing,  and  were  finally  rewarded  by  getting  all  but  a  few 
words.     And  this  was  what  we  found : 

"July  8th,  1741. 
"Deu.  32:35. 
"Vengeance  is  mine  and  recompense. 
"In  due  time  their  foot  shall  slide. 

"This  time  Mr.  M.  preached  from  2  Cor.  5:20  &  Mr. 
Williams  from  Acts.  2:51.  Discourses  solemn  and  the  Congrega- 
tion considerably  affected  &  many  cried  out.  We  went  to  Mr. 
Reynolds'  and  dined,  and  then  went  over  to  Enfield,  where  we 
met  dear  Mr.  Edwards,  of  North  Hampton,  who  preached  a 
most  awakening  sermon  from  these  words  Deu.  32  :35  and  before 
sermon  was  done  there  was  a  great  moaning  and  crying  out, 
'What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved?  Oh,  I  am  going  to  hell!  Oh  what 
shall  I  do  for  a  Christ?'  &c.,  &c.,  until  the  minister  was  obliged 
to  desist.  The  screeches  and  cries  were  pitiful  and  agonizing. 
And  after  some  time  of  waiting  the  Congregation  were  stilled  so 
that  a  prayer  was  made  by  Mr.  Wilhams,  and  after  that  we 
descended  from  the  Pulpit  &  discoursed  with  the  people,  some 
in  one  place  and  some  in  another.  And  an  amazing  and  astonish- 
ing power  of  God  was  seen,  and  several  souls  were  happily 
wrought  upon  that  night,  the  cheerfulness  and  pleasantness  of 
their  countenances  (several  words  were  undecipherable)  Oh, 
that  God  would  strengthen  and  confirm     *     *     *     &  then" 

"July  9th,  1741. 

"Oh,  that  God  would  give  me  great  desire  in  my  soul  to  see 
at  Longmeadow  what  I  have  seen  in  Enfield." 

This  is  the  end  of  what  we  could  make  out  of  the  diary. 

Much  of  the  foregoing,  and  additional  scenes  have  come 
down  by  tradition  from  their  ancestors  to  the  present  generation 
of  Enfield  people.  They  declared  that  so  vivid  was  hell  painted 
by  Edwards  that  many  grasped  the  railing  of  the  pews,  as  if  to 
save  themselves  from  then  and  there  descending  into  the  bot- 
tomless pit.  One  old  man  named  Meacham,  with  tears  running 
down  his  face,  and  his  long  white  hair  streaming  down  his 
shoulders,  rose  and  cried  out  "Oh  for  a  Christ!  Is  there  no 
balm  in  Gilead,  is  there  no  physician  there?"  The  answer 
to  which  to  us  of  this  day  would  seem  to  be  an  adequate 
answer  to  the  whole  brilliant,  but  terrible  sermon.  Just  one 
sentence  I  will  give  as  a  sample  of  it  all.  "The  bow  of  God's 
wrath  is  bent,  and  the  arrow  made  ready  on  the  string,  and 
justice  aims  the  arrow  at  your  heart,  and  strains  the  bow,  and 

144 


it  is  nothing  but  the  mere  pleasure  of  God,  and  that  an  angry 
God,  without  any  promise  or  obligation  at  all,  that  keeps  the 
arrow  one  moment  from  being  made  drunk  with  your  blood." 
Christ's  name  hardly  appears  in  this  sermon.  A  large  part  of 
the  sermon  is  in  the  same  strain. 

After  twenty-four  years  spent  as  pastor  of  what  is  now 
called  the  Edwards'  Church  at  Northampton,  President  Edwards 
was  forced  to  resign  on  account  of  differences  between  him  and 
his  church  about  some  doctrinal  beliefs  and  his  denunciation  of 
the  morals  of  some  of  the  children  of  the  rich  people  of  his 
parish,  and  then  he  went  to  the  church  at  Stockbridge,  Mass., 
and  was  also  missionary  to  the  Indians  there,  but  very  shortly  he 
was  chosen  president  of  what  is  now  Princeton  College  and  so 
was  a  predecessor  of  our  President  in  that  office.  He  died  after 
holding  that  office  a  few  weeks,  from  smallpox.  He  left  a  numer- 
ous family,  from  whom  have  descended  some  of  the  most  famous 
men  of  our  nation.  More  than  fifteen  hundred  of  his  descendants 
are  now  living,  among  them  a  grandson  of  Theodore  Roosevelt. 

In  every  part  of  the  United  States  are  found  men  and 
women  who  owe  to  Jonathan  Edwards  a  vigor  of  intellect  and 
character  that  makes  them  noteworthy.  Through  six  generations 
his  intellectual  and  moral  force  has  projected  itself  and  each 
successive  generation  has  used  this  inheritance  grandly. 

His  descendants  have  furnished  three  presidents  to  Yale 
College,  Timothy  Dwight,  Theodore  Dwight  Woolsey  and  Tim- 
othy Dwight,  Jr.,  all  of  whom  were  descendants  of  Jonathan 
Edwards's  daughter  Mary.  His  descendants  have  also  furnished 
presidents  for  Princeton,  Hamilton,  Union,  Amherst  and  Johns 
Hopkins,  and  for  several  law  schools  and  theological  seminaries, 
and  they  are  listed  among  the  alumni  of  forty-five  American  and 
foreign  colleges. 

Jonathan  Edwards  left  a  family  of  eleven  children  in  what 
would  be  called  extreme  poverty  at  this  day,  but  he  left  them  a 
legacy  of  keen  intellect  ?ind  fine  moral  character  which  was  of 
inestimable  value.  Out  of  all  the  multitude  of  his  descendants 
the  solitary  "black  sheep"  of  the  Edwards  family  was  Aaron 
Burr,  a  grandson  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 

The  historian  Bancroft  declared  that  Jonathan  Edwards  and 
Benjamin  Franklin  were  the  two  greatest  men  America  had  pro- 
duced. Edwards's  writings  long  held  supreme  authority;  in 
Europe,  as  well  as  in  America,  he  was  ranked  among  the  great 
thinkers  of  the  world. 

145 


The  theology  of  Jonathan  Edwards  may  be  dead  and  his 
books  unread,  but  the  man  was  greater  than  the  theologian.  In 
leaving  to  his  posterity  the  legacy  that  he  gave,  he  did  the  best 
a  man  can  do  for  the  world. 

He  was  the  son  of  Timothy  Edwards,  pastor  of  the  church 
at  East  Windsor  Hill,  about  eight  miles  south  of  Enfield,  and 
the  cellar  hole  of  the  house  where  he  was  born  may  be  seen 
now.  He  was  a  great  logician,  and  Edwards  on  the  "Freedom 
of  the  Will"  and  many  other  metaphysicial  works  placed  him 
at  the  head  of  all  American  thinkers  on  those  subjects.  But 
men  no  longer  believe  that  there  is  no  freedom  of  the  will,  that 
it  is  forever  decreed  "that  you  shall  and  you  shall  not.  that  you 
can  and  you  cannot,"  and  as  Hudibras  puts  it,  "you'll  be  damned 
if  you  do.  and  you'll  be  damned  if  you  don't." 

Rev.  Stephen  Williams,  who  wrote  out  the  story  in  his 
diary,  was  pastor  of  the  church  in  Longmeadow  for  sixty-six 
years.  He  was  born  in  Deerfield,  Mass.,  May  14th,  1693,  and  was 
the  son  of  Rev.  John  Williams.  With  his  father,  mother  and 
sister  Eunice  he  was  captured  by  the  Indians  when  they  slaugh- 
tered many  of  the  inhabitants  of  Deerfield  in  February,  1704,  and 
he  and  his  father  were  ransomed  fourteen  months  afterwards, 
Eunice  was  but  eight  years  old  when  captured  and  taken  to 
Canada.  The  mother  was  slain.  Eunice,  many  years  after- 
wards, was  induced  to  visit  her  relatives  several  times,  but 
wearied  of  the  civilized  life  and  returned  to  her  Indian  home, 
and  lived  and  died  there.     She  knew  no  language  but  the  Indian 


tongue. 


The  diaries  of  Stephen  W^illiams,  of  which  there  are  a 
large  number,  were  preserved  and  came  down  to  Rev.  John  W. 
Harding,  ])astor  of  the  Longmeadow  Church  from  1849  till  he 
died  a  few  years  since,  and  for  a  long  time  yclept  the  "Bishop 
of  Longmeadow,"  and  from  him  came  to  his  daughter,  now  the 
wife  of  Prot.  Wm.  B.  Medlicott.  and  it  was  through  their  cour- 
tesy that  I  was  able  to  get  a  copy  of  the  part  of  the  diary  I  have 
given.  Manv  will  remember  good,  sweet.  [Minister  Harding. 
The  first  time  he  aj^peared  in  our  puli)it  was  at  the  funeral  of 
our  ])astor.  Rev.  Francis  LeBaron  Robbins.  in  April.  1850.  and 
wlif)  had  preached  in  the  Enfield  Church  thirty-three  years. 

NOTE — This  paper  was  written  for  and  read  at  the  an.nual 
meeting  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  of  Enfield  on  Jan- 
uary 15,  1914. 

146 


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A  WORTHY  ENFIELD  ABBE. 

Timothy  Harlow  Abbe,  1815-1904,  made  a  collection  of 
records  pertaining  to  the  history  of  the  family,  many  of  which 
were  used  in  the  "Abbe  Genealogy"  in  compiling  the  history  of 
the  Enfield  branch.  He  also  rendered  to  the  Town  of  Enfield 
a  o-reat  service,  which  is  thus  described  by  his  daughter,  Mrs. 
James  C.  Guthrie,  of  Springfield,  Mass. : 

"In  our  village  the  only  place  where  young  men  could  con- 
gregate was  the  general  store  and  saloon  combined.  My  parents 
knew  the  fatal  attraction  of  the  place  and  to  counteract  its  influ- 
ence they  fitted  up  one  of  our  front  rooms  as  a  reading  room 
and  bade  the  boys  welcome.  The  room  was  always  warm,  light 
and  clean,  and  my  father  encouraged  the  boys  to  study  history 
and  current  events  and  to  learn  to  express  themselves.  He 
formed  a  lyceum  and  the  neighbors  were  invited  in  to  hear  their 
sons  debate  the  questions  of  the  day.  A  deep  thinker  and  a 
forceful  speaker  himself,  he  planted  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
receptive  youth  the  pure  thoughts  and  high  ideals  that  were  of 
untold  value  in  character  building.  One  of  these  young  men, 
now  a  successful  physician,  said  recently  that  he  and  his  brothers 
and  cousins,  among  whom  are  lawyers,  doctors  and  successful 
business  men,  felt  that  they  owed  a  large  part  of  their  success  in 
life  to  the  influence  and  encouragement  of  Harlow  Abbe." 

THE  AUTHOR  OF  "THE  CAPTAIN'S  DRUM." 

Benjamin  Franklin  Taylor  was  a  man  of  mark.  He  was 
graduated  in  1838  from  Madison  University,  of  which  his  father 
later  became  president,  after  its  name  was  changed  to  Colgate 
University.  For  nearly  twenty  years  he  was  literary  editor  of 
a  Chicago  newspaper  and  in  the  Civil  War  made  a  reputation  as 
a  war  correspondent.  After  the  war  he  traveled  extensively  and 
achieved  success  as  a  lecturer  along  with  Wendell  Phillips  and 
liayard  Taylor.  His  ])oenis  went  through  many  editions,  and 
Whittier  said  of  them:  "I  do  not  know  of  any  one  who  so 
well  reproduces  the  scenes  of  long  ago."  The  London  "Tmies" 
called  him  "The  Oliver  (H)l(lsmith  of  America"  and  declared 
some  of  his  battle  pictures  to  be  the  finest  ever  written  in  the 
English  language.  Besides  his  collected  jjoenis.  which  ran  into 
five  editions,  and  one  novel,  "Theopliilus  Tri'iil."  lu-  i)ul)lished  ten 
other  volumes  of   poetry   and   prose. 

148 


THE  WINDHAM  ABBES. 

[With  the  exception  of  his  brother  and  himself  these  names 
were  selected  by  the  late  Professor  Cleveland  Abbe  to  be 
inscribed  on  the  Enfield  Memorial.] 

John  Abbe,  1636-1700,  was  an  original  member  of  the  first 
church  in  Windham,  Connecticut.     His  brother, 

Samuel  Abbe,  1646-1697,  lived  in  Salem  during  the  witch- 
craft trials.  He  testified  to  the  good  character  of  Rebecca 
Nourse,  who  was  put  to  death.  Both  he  and  his  wife  testified 
against  Sarah  Good  and  he  made  a  deposition  against  Mary 
Easty. 

Richard  Abbe,  1682-1737  Cson  of  John  Abbe  of  Wind- 
ham), represented  Windham  in  the  Connecticut  Legislature  from 
1726  to  1737. 

Joshua  Abbe,  1710-1807  (grandson  of  Samuel  Abbe  of 
Windham),  was  known  as  "King  Abbe"  on  account  of  his  exten- 
sive estates.  He  was  the  leader  in  a  sect  of  Baptists  called 
"Abbe-ites."  He  kept  open  house  for  religious  meetings  and  for 
guests,  among  whom  was  "Mother"  Ann  Lee,  founder  of  the 
sect  of  Shakers.  At  the  age  of  94  it  is  stated  that  he  had  218 
living  descendants.  His  wife,  Mary  Ripley,  was  a  descendant  of 
Governor  William  Bradford  of  the  Mayflower,  of  Lion  Gardiner 
of  Gardiner's  Island,  of  Lieutenant  William  Backus,  the  founder 
of  Norwich,  Connecticut,  and  other  Colonial  celebrities.  Their 
son, 

Shubael  Abbe,  1744-1804.  was  graduated  at  Yale  in  1764 
and  served  several  terms  in  the  Connecticut  Legislature.  Their 
daughter, 

Rachel  Abbe,  1738-1795.  was  unfortunately  omitted  in 
the  inscriptions  on  the  Enfield  Memorial,  but  was  most  worthv 
of  commemoration  there.  She  has.  however,  in  Woodstock. 
Connecticut,  a  lasting  memorial  of  her  patriotism.  In  1766  she 
married  Samuel  McClellan.  who  had  served  as  ensign  and  lieu- 
tenant in  the  French  War  and  was  wounded  in  battle.  At  the 
Lexington  Alarm  she  aided  in  fitting  out  her  husband  and  the 
troop  of  cavalry  which  he  commanded  at  Bunker  Hill.  In  honor 
of  the  rising  of  the  nation  she  set  out  memorial  trees.  Four 
sapling  elms  were  brought  on  horseback  from  the  old  Windham 
homestead  and  transplanted  into  the  soil  of  Woodstock,  two  in 
front  of  her  home  and  two  on  the  slope  of  the  adjoining  com- 
mon.    Nurtured  with  care,  they  soon  took  root  and  flourished, 

149 


and  for  nearly  a  century  and  a  hah"  have  told  the  story  of  Lex- 
ington and  Concord.  True  trees  of  liberty,  they  have  grown  up 
with  the  nation  and  still  stand  in  majestic  beauty,  living  witnesses 
to  the  patriotism  and  devotion  of  Rachel  Abbe,  wife  of  General 
Samuel  McClellan  of  the  Revolution,  and  great-grandmother  of 
General  George  B.  McClellan  of  the  Civil  War. 


Hexrv  Abbey,  1842-1911,  was  the  author  of  several  volumes 
of  verse.  William  Cullen  Bryant  paid  tribute  to  his  "affluent 
fancy"  and  Charles  G.  Leland  wrote  that  Mr.  Abbey,  for  his 
poem  '"Ralph,"  deserved  "permanent  prominence  in  the  Ameri- 
can Parnassus." 


Dr.  Rockrt  Abbic,  1S52,  has  a  world-wide  reputation  as  one 
of  America's  most  eminent  surgeons.  His  wife.  Catherine 
Amory  Bennett,  was  the  widow  of  Courtlandt  Palmer,  founder 
of  the  Nineteenth  Century  Club.  She  founded  the  City  History 
Club  of  Xew  York  and  is  its  president. 

150 


Professor  Cleveland  Abbe,  1838-1916,  died  on  October  28, 
1916,  just  one  week  before  the  dedication  of  the  Enfield 
Memorial,  in  which  he  took  so  deep  an  interest,  and  three  weeks 
prior  to  the  pubHcation  of  the  "Abbe  Genealogy,"  on  which  he 
had  labored  for  more  than  half  a  century.  His  eminence  as  a 
scientist  was  recognized  by  the  degrees  of  doctor  of  laws  con- 
ferred by  the  University  of  Michigan  in  1888,  and  by  the  Uni- 
versity of  Glasgow,  Scotland,  in  1896.  The  Symons  Memorial 
Gold  Medal  was  awarded  to  him  by  the  Royal  Meteorological 
Society  of  England  in  1912.  and  the  Marcellus  Hartley  Memorial 
Medal  by  the  American  National  Academy  of  Sciences  in  1916 
"for  eminence  in  the  application  of  science  to  the  public  wel- 
fare."    He  was  also  an  officer  of  the  Academy  of  France. 


From  the  bust  by  the  late  Onslow  Ford 

Edwin  Austin  Abbey,  1852-1911,  at  21  became  the  humor- 
ous illustrator  of  the  "Editor's  Drawer"  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
later  he  illustrated  Herrick,  Goldsmith  and  Shakespeare,  but  he 
won  greatest  fame  as  a  painter.  His  chief  works  are  the  "Holy 
Grail"  series  in  the  Boston  Public  Library,  the  murals  in  the 
State  Capitol  at  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania,  and  the  coronation 
of  Edward  VII.  He  was  a  member  of  the  English  Royal 
Academy.  His  sense  of  humor  was  acute  and  he  originated  the 
slang  phrase,  "chestnut."  He  always  gave  credit  for  anything 
that  he  accomplished  to  his  grandfather,  Roswell  Abbey,  a  Phila- 
delphia merchant  of  fine  artistic  feeling.  This  devotion  to 
grandparents  seems  to  be  a  characteristic  Abbey  trait. 

151 


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152 


ABBEY  MEMORIAL  IN  ENGLAND. 
[Cable  to  The  New  York  Times.] 

London,  March  13,  1917. — Walter  Hines  Page,  the  Amer- 
ican Ambassador,  this  afternoon  delivered  an  address  at  the  un- 
veiling in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  of  a  memorial  tablet  to  the  late 
Edwin  A.  Abbey.  Princess  Louise,  the  Duchess  of  Argyll 
(daughter  of  Queen  Victoria,  sister  of  Edward  VII  and  herself 
an  artist  of  merit),  unveiled  the  memorial  to  the  genius  of  the 
great  American  mural  painter. 

Ambassador  Page  sketched  the  career  of  the  artist  from  the 
days  of  his  training  in  Philadelphia  to  the  accomplishment  of  his 
best  achievements  in  England. 

"This  tablet,"  said  the  Ambassador,  "is  another  link  in  the 
endless  chain  that  binds  all  parts  of  the  English-speaking  world 
together  and  will  forever  hold  them  true  to  their  common  high 
ideals." 


Died  on  the  Field  of  Honor  in  France  Fighting  for  Freedom 

LIEUTENANT   EDWIN    AUSTIN   ABBEY,  2nd, 

of  Philadelphia,  enlisted  early  in  the  war  in  the  Canadian  Engineers. 
On  April  19,  1917,  he  was  reported  "missing"  in  the  fighting  which 
followed  the  taking  of  the  famous  Vimy  Ridge  by  the  Canadian 
troops.  Later  it  was  announced  that  he  was  "  killed  in  action."  He 
was  the  son  of  William  Burling  Abbey,  of  Mt.  Holly,  New  Jersey, 
grandson  of  Rev.  John  Kerfoot  Lewis,  Chaplain  in  the  United  States 
Army,  and  namesake  of  his  uncle,  Edwin  Austin  Abbey,  the  celebrated 
mural  painter. 


153 


AT   WORK   ON   THE  ABBEY   MEMORIAL 

In  the  yard  of  the  Edwin  Shuttleworth  Co.,  Long  Island  City,  N.  Y. 


Certified  Copy  of  Grant  of  the  Site  for  the  Abbey 
Memorial  by  the  People  of  Enfield 

The  following  is  a  certified  copy  of  action  taken  at  the  Town 
Meeting  November  11th,  1915,  in  connection  with  Article  No.  1 
in  the  warning: 

Art.  1.  The  following  letter  and  resolution  was  presented 
by  Allen  B.  Hathaway  and  William  J.  Mulligan  moved  its  adop- 
tion : 

Letter : 

September  24th,  1915. 
Honorable  Selectmen, 

Enfield,  Conn. 
Gentlemen : 

As  you  are  undoubtedly  aware,  I  am  desirous  of  erecting  a 
monument  to  Capt.  Thomas  Abbey,  a  hero  of  the  Revolutionary 
War.  and  in  connection  with  it  a  memorial  to  his  ancestors  and 
descendants,  and  of  giving  this  monument  and  memorial,  upon 
its  completion,  to  the  town  of  Enfield.  I  have  had  plans  and 
specifications  drawn,  and  am  now  preparing  to  sign  the  con- 
tracts for  the  completion  of  this  work.  Before  signing  the 
contracts,  calling  for  an  expenditure  of  several  thousand  dollars, 
I  should  like  to  be  protected  to  the  extent  of  knowing  that  the 
monument  will  be  acceptable  to  the  citizens  of  Enfield,  and  that 
the  work  may  proceed  to  completion  without  interruption. 

I  am  advised  that  the  only  safe  course  for  me  to  pursue  is 
to  obtain  permission  to  erect  the  monument,  and  the  acceptance 
of  my  ofifer  by  action  taken  at  a  Town  meeting.  After  consulta- 
tion with  a  number  of  i)rominent  citizens  of  Enfield,  the  site 
recommended  to  me  is  upon  the  green,  directly  in  front  of  the 
Congregational  Church,  and  half  way  between  the  highway  and 
the  entrance  to  the  Church. 

It  is  my  further  intention  to  give  to  the  Congregational 
Church  of  Enfield,  a  sum  of  money  sufficient  to  have  the  income 
therefrom  maintain,  in  good  condition  and  repair,  the  monument 
and  memorial,  together  with  the  ground  immediately  surround- 
ing it. 

It  will  require,  I  am  informed,  about  fourteen  months  from 
the  signing  of  the  contract,  for  the  sculptor  to  complete  the 
mon'ument.     I  am  therefore  desirous  of  ascertaining  whether,  if 

155 


my  plan  is  agreeable  to  you,  a  town  meeting  can  be  called,  at 
which  action  may  be  taken  approving  of  my  offer,  and  authorizing 
the  erection  and  maintenance  in  perpetuity,  of  the  statue  and 
memorial  as  proposed. 

\'ery  respectfully  yours, 

ALDEN  FREEMAN. 

In  presence  of 
Vera  D.  Newman 
witness. 

Resolution : 

Whereas,  Mr.  Alden  Freeman  of  the  City  of  East  Orange, 
in  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  has  oft'ered  to  give  to  the  Town  of 
Enfield,  a  statue  of  Captain  Thomas  Abbey,  a  former  resident  of 
said  Town,  together  with  a  base  therefor,  and  to  construct  said 
base  and  erect  said  statue  thereon  within  the  highway  limits  upon 
the  east  side  of  the  travelled  path  immediately  in  front  of  the 
building  of  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  on  Enfield  Street,  all 
without  expense  to  the  town,  and  to  give  said  First  Ecclesiastical 
Society  a  sum  of  money  to  be  held  as  a  permanent  fund,  the 
income  thereof  to  be  applied  to  the  care  and  maintenance  of  said 
statue  and  base,  which  oft'er  is  set  forth  in  a  letter  from  said 
Alden  Freeman,  dated  September  24,  1915,  and  addressed  to  the 
Selectmen  of  the  Town,  which  letter  has  this  day  been  read  to 
the  voters  of  the  Town  in  Town  meeting  duly  assembled  ;  and 

Whereas,  Said  First  Ecclesiastical  Society,  acting  by  its 
Society's  Committee,  thereunto  duly  authorized,  has  formally 
consented  to  the  location  of  said  statue  as  hereinbefore  described, 
and  to  hold  and  invest  said  fund  and  use  the  income  thereof  for 
the  purposes  stated ;  and 

Whereas,  A  plan  of  said  proposed  statue  and  its  base  has 
been  submitted  to  the  voters  of  the  Town  at  said  Town  meetina: ; 

Now,  therefore.  It  is  voted  that  said  oft'er  l)e,  and  the  same 
hereby  is  accepted,  and  that  upon  the  comj^letion  of  said  statue, 
the  First  Selectman  of  the  Town  be  authorized  to  accei)t  the 
same  in  the  name  of,  and  on  behalf  of  the  citizens  of  the  Town; 
and  that  the  said  Alden  Freeman,  and  his  representatives,  agents 
and  contractors  be,  and  they  hereby  are  authorized  to  proceed 
with  the  erection  of  said  statue,  together  with  the  base  or  pedestal 
and  seats  or  benches  surrounding  the  same,  within  the  highway 
limits,  upon  the  east  side  of  the  travelled  path,  immediately  in 

156 


front  of  the  building  of  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society,  on  Enfield 
Street ;  and  to  perform  all  the  work  necessary  to  be  done  in  con- 
nection with  the  erection  and  completion  thereof,  without  any  let, 
hindrance,  obstruction  or  delay  on  the  part  of  the  citizens  and 
voters  of  the  town  of  Enfield,  or  their  representatives  ;  and  that 
said  statue  when  completed,  shall  not  be  destroyed  or  removed, 
but  shall  always  remain  upon  the  site  upon  which  it  is  erected,  and 
so  long  as  it  is  maintained,  repaired  and  kept  in  good  condition. 

Being  put  to  vote.  Resolution  was  Adopted. 
Attest:  A  true  copy  of  record. 

J.  HAMILTON  POTTER, 

Tozvn  Clerk. 


DETAIL   OF  SEATBACK    IN    THE  EXEDRA 

The  Tower  of  London  typifies  the  autocratic  rule  which   |ohn   Abbey  turned  his 
back  on  when  he  sailed  from  London  on  January  2,  1634. 


157 


AGREE.MEXT    ENTERED    IXTO    BY    THE    FIRST    EC- 
CLESIASTICAL SOCIETY  OF  ENFIELD  TO  ADMIN- 
ISTER THE  FUND  PROMDED  FOR  THE  CARE 
AXD  MAINTENANCE  OF  THE  ABBEY 
.AIEMORIAL. 

Whereas,  ]\lr.  Alden  Freeman,  of  the  City  of  East  Orange, 
Essex  County,  New  Jersey,  has  agreed  to  pay  to  the  First  Ec- 
clesiastical Society  of  Enfield,  Connecticut,  the  sum  of  five  hun- 
dred dollars,  in  trust,  to  pay  the  income  arising  therefrom  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  Abbey  Memorial,  in  Enfield,  Conn. ;  and, 

Whereas,  The  said  Alden  Freeman  has  agreed  to  increase 
said  payment  by  one  thousand  dollars  ($1,000),  to  the  amount 
of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  ($1500),  on  condition  that  the  said 
First  Ecclesiastical  Society  will  cause  the  lawn  in  front  of  the 
First  Congregational  Church  in  the  Town  of  Enfield,  Conn.,  and 
surrounding  the  memorial,  to  be  graded  and  seeded  and  to  lay 
a  new  cement  walk  from  the  entrance  of  the  church  to  the  road- 
way, as  early  in  the  spring  of  1917  as  conditions  will  permit, 
said  grading,  seeding  and  laying  of  the  said  walk  to  be  done  at 
the  expense  of  the  said  First  Ecclesiastical   Society  of  Enfield. 

Now,  Therefore,  The  said  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  of 
Enfield,  Conn.,  hereinafter  referred  to  as  the  party  of  the  first 
part,  in  consideration  of  the  premises,  and  the  said  sum  of 
fifteen  hundred  dollars  ($1500).  lawful  money  of  the  United 
States,  to  it  in  hand  paid  l)y  Alden  Freeman,  of  the  City  of  East 
Orange.  County  of  Essex  and  State  of  New  Jersey,  hereinafter 
referred  to  as  the  party  of  the  second  part,  the  receipt  whereof  is 
hereby  acknowledged,  does  promise  and  agree  to  grade  the 
grounds  surrounding  the  memorial,  and  known  as  the  "Town 
Green,"  and  particularly  that  part  thereof  which  lies  in  front 
of  the  church  ancl  the  old  Town  Hall,  which  is  located  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  roadway,  and  to  cause  the  same  to  be  seeded 
and  a  lawn  inadc.  and  to  lay  a  new  cement  walk  from  the  entrance 
of  the  church  to  the  macadam  roadway;  said  work  to  be  done  at 
the  expense  of  the  said  First  Ecclesiastical  Society,  and  out  of 
moneys  other  than  said  sum  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  ($1500), 
or  any  part  thereof,  or  the  interest  thereon. 

And  the  said  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  further  agrees, 
in  consideration  of  said  sum  of  $1500.  to  hold  said  sum  of  $1500 
as  a  fund,  in  trust,  to  be  known  as  "The  Alden  Freeman  Fund." 
and  to  invest  it  according  to  the  laws  of  the  State  of  Connecti- 

158 


CAPTAIN  P.  }.  ROGERS,  OF  THOMPSONVILLE,  CONNECTICUT, 
SETTING  THE  ABBEY  MEMORIAL 


cut  and  regarding  trust  funds  investments ;  and  to  use  the  income 
derived  therefrom  for  the  following  purposes,  and  no  other, 
viz. : 

To  expend  one-third  (1-3)  of  the  annual  income  arising 
therefrom  in  the  maintenance,  cleaning  and  repairing  of  the 
Ahbey  Memorial,  in  front  of  said  church,  including  the  seats, 
paved  center  and  the  monument,  as  it  may  become,  from  time  to 
time,  necessary  so  to  do ;  and  in  case,  during  any  one  year,  said 
monument  shall  require  no  expenditure  for  its  maintenance, 
repair  or  cleaning,  then  said  one-third  of  the  annual  income  shall 
be  reinvested  and  allowed  to  accumulate  until  such  time  as  its 
use  is  necessary  for  the  above  mentioned  purposes. 

To  expend  two-thirds  (2-3)  of  the  annual  income  arising 
therefrom,  or  so  much  thereof  as  shall  be  necessary,  in  the  upkeep 
and  further  improvement  of  the  grounds  surrounding  said 
memorial,  and  known  as  "The  Town  Green."  and  particularly 
that  part  thereof  which  lies  in  front  of  the  church  and  the  old 
Town  Hall,  which  is  located  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  road- 
way ;  and  in  case,  during  any  one  year,  it  shall  not  be  necessary  to 
expend  in  the  upkeep  and  further  improvement  of  the  grounds 
the  said  entire  two-thirds  of  the  annual  income  arising  from  said 
fund,  then  any  balance  of  said  two-thirds  portion  of  the  income 
remaining  unexpended  shall  be  applied  to  that  third  of  the  annual 
income  and  expended  in  the  maintaining,  cleaning  and  repairing 
of  the  memorial ;  or  in  case,  during  any  year,  that  there  be  any 
such  surplus  from  the  two-thirds  portion  of  the  annual  income, 
said  balance  shall  be  reinvested  and  allowed  to  accumulate  until 
such  time  as  its  use  is  necessary  in  the  maintenance,  cleaning  and 
repairing  of  the  monument. 

If,  in  any  one  year,  the  repairs  on  the  memorial  shall  require 
more  than  the  accumulated  one-third  of  the  annual  income 
therein  provided  for  that  purpose,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
said  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  of  Enfield,  and  it  hereby  does 
agree,  to  expend  all  the  income  for  that  year  on  the  memorial 
instead  of  on  the  grounds. 

If  at  any  time  the  grounds  surrounding  the  monument  or 
in  the  vicinity  thereof,  belonging  to  the  Town  of  Enfield,  and 
known  as  the  "Town  Green,"  are  maintained  and  kept  up  at 
public  expense,  then  and  in  such  event  all  of  the  income  arising 
from  said  trust  fund  of  $1500  for  such  period  as  said  "Town 
Green"  is  maintained  and  kept  up  at  public  expense,   shall  be 

160 


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reserved  and  applied  only  to  the  maintenance  and  repair  of  the 
monument. 

Nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  deemed,  however,  to  bind 
the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  of  Enfield  to  expend  in  any  one 
year  more  than  the  total  accrued  income  on  said  trust  fund  of 
$1500,  which  it  may  have  on  hand;  nor  shall  anything  herein  con- 
tained be  deemed  to  authorize  the  expenditure  of  any  of  said 
income  arising  from  said  trust  fund  for  the  purpose  of  the 
removing  snow  or  ice  from  the  walk  leading  from  the  roadway  to 
the  church,  or  from  the  seats,  or  any  of  the  area  contained  therein. 

This  agreement  shall  be  binding  upon  the  successors  and 
assigns  of  the  said  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  of  Enfield,  Conn. 

In  Witness  Whereof  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  of 
Enfield,  Connecticut,  has  caused  these  presents  to  be  signed  by 
its  Committee,  and  its  corporate  seal  to  be  affixed  hereto,  this 
i2th  day  of  Marcli,  1917. 

FIRST  ECCLESIASTICAL  SOCIETY 

BY 

ALLEN  B.  HATHAWAY  L.  P.  ABBE 

J.  WARREN  lOHNSON  WARREN  B.  JOHNSON 

WM.  H.  WHITNEY,  Jr.  FRANK  J.  PEASE 

In  the  Presence  of: 
Jerry  J.  Chapin,  Thomas   L.    Kenny,    Mrs.    F.  J.  Pease, 

Belee  K.  Hathaway. 


If  we  mean  to  support  the  liberty  and  independence  which 
have  cost  us  so  much  blood  and  treasure  to  establish,  we  must 
drive  far  away  the  demon  of  party  spirit. — George  IVashington. 

Let  us  forget  parties  and  think  of  our  country.  That  coun- 
try em.braces  both  parties.  We  must  endeavor  therefore  to  save 
and  to  benefit  both.  This  cannot  be  while  political  delusions 
array  good  men  against  each  other. — Goiiverneur  Morris. 

Then  none  was  for  a  party, 

Then  all  were  for  the  state; 
Then  the  great  man  helped  the  poor, 

And  the  poor  man  loved  the  great. 

— Macaulay's  "Horatius." 


163 


PRESIDENT  WILSON   ON   LIBERTY  AND   PEACE. 

Did  you  ever  stop  to  think  just  what  it  is  that  America 
stands  for?  If  she  stands  for  one  thing  more  than  another  it 
is  the  sovereignty  of  self-governing  people,  and  her  example, 
her  assistance,  her  encouragement,  have  thrilled  two  continents  in 
this  western  world  with  all  those  fine  impulses  which  have  built 
up  human  liberty  on  both  sides  of  the  water. — Pittsburg,  Janu- 
ary 28,   1916. 

Why  is  it  that  men  who  love  liberty  have  crowded  to  these 
shores?  Why  is  it  that  we  greet  them  as  they  enter  the  great 
Harbor  of  New  York  with  that  majestic  Statue  of  Liberty 
holding  up  a  torch,  whose  visionary  beams  are  supposed  to 
spread  abroad  over  the  waters  of  the  world  and  to  say  to  all 
men :  "Come  to  America,  where  mankind  is  free  and  where 
we  love  all  the  works  of  righteousness  and  peace?" — Cleveland, 
January  29,  1916. 

There  is  a  great  responsibility  in  having  adopted  liberty  as 
our  ideal,  because  we  must  illustrate  it  in  what  we  do.  Mr.  Pul- 
itzer said  that  there  would  come  a  day  when  it  was  perceived 
that  the  Goddess  of  Liberty  was  also  the  Goddess  of  Peace,  and 
throughout  the  last  two  years  there  has  come  more  and  more 
into  my  heart  the  conviction  that  peace  is  going  to  come  to  the 
world  only  with  liberty. 

With  all  due  and  sincere  respect  for  those  who  represent 
other  forms  of  government  than  ours,  perhaps  I  may  be  permitted 
to  say  that  peace  cannot  come  so  long  as  the  destinies  of  men 
are  determined  by  small  groups  who  make  selfish  choices  of 
their  own. — New  York,  December  2,   1916. 

When  the  people  of  Central  Europe  aecept  the  peace  ivhich 
is  offered  them  by  the  Allies,  not  only  will  the  allied  peoples  be 
free,  as  they  have  never  been  free  before,  but  the  German  people, 
too,  will  find  that  in  losing  the  dream  of  an  empire  over  others, 
they  have  found  self-governnment  for  themselves. 

David  Lloyd  George  on  Lincoln's  Birthday,  1917. 


164 


VIEW   FROM   THE   PORTICO   OF   THE   ENFIELD   CHURCH 

Photographed  by  deWitt  C.  Ward 


CAESARISM   IX  THE  20TH  CEXTURY. 

History  repeats  itself  again  and  again.  The  imperator  of 
the  twentieth  century  is  only  a  harder,  more  brutal  and  more 
efficient  CcTsar  than  his  Roman  prototypes,  not  lacking  even  the 
play-actor  traits  and  artistic  yearnings  of  Nero.  Nietzsche's 
"Will  to  Power,"  as  promulgated  through  Treitschke  and  Bern- 
hardi  and  other  German  writers,  incites  to  a  ruthlessness  and  an 
unscrupulousness  in  the  pursuit  of  power  that  halts  at  no  enor- 
mity, and  which,  if  unchecked,  forecasts  a  repetition  of  the  Dark 
Ages  which  succeeded  the  sway  of  the  imperial  madmen  of  Rome, 
and  during  which  the  waging  of  war  became  the  only  permanent 
business  of  mankind. 

The  twentieth  century  C?esar  has  transformed  whole  nations 
into  one  vast  Praetorian  Guard.  The  obedient  millions  of  Central 
Europe  have  bartered  their  liberties  and  all  freedom  of  speech 
and  action  for  a  mess  of  pottage,  for  paneni  et  circcnses,  as  ni 
Roman  days.  Their  master  feeds  and  clothes  and  houses  his 
submissive  serfs,  including  the  fawning  professors  of  his  universi- 
ties, in  the  most  efficient,  scientific  and  economical  manner. 
Caesar  has  become  sacrosanct  and  infallible.  He  has  spread  his 
network  of  espionage  over  the  whole  earth.  His  agents  voice  his 
will  in  the  parliaments  and  legislatures  of  every  land.  His  Machia- 
vellian hand  is  seen  even  in  the  cabinets  of  nations  with  which 
he  is  at  war.  His  Dionysian  ear  is  like  the  dictograph  and  under 
every  rooftree.  He  flatters  the  blind,  driven  cattle  of  his  own 
land  and  tells  them  they  shall  inherit  the  earth.  One  simple- 
minded  Teuton  wrote  me  that  he  had  discovered  "why  all  the 
world  hates  the  Germans."  "The  rest  of  the  world  is  jealous  of 
us,"  he  declares,  "because  we  are  more  intelligent,  better  educated 
and  more  moral  than  any  other  people,  and  therefore  better  fitted 
to  govern  the  rest  of  the  world  than  any  other  nation." 

"H  you  do  not  believe  this,  or  at  least  appear  to  agree  to  it, 
your  friends  and  relations  will  not  speak  to  you  and  your  life 
will  be  made  miserable.  You  might  as  well  be  dead  and  very 
likely  you  will  be  shot,"  added  my  correspondent.  The  rule  of 
{rightfulness  having  proved  so  successful  with  his  docile  German 
subjects,  the  Kaiser  evidently  calculated  that  he  would  be  able 
to  frighten  the  rest  of  the  world  into  submission. 


166 


The  Lusitania,  May  7,  1915. 

Not  all  the  seven  oceans 

Shall  wash  away  the  stain  ; 
Upon  a  brow  that  wears  a  crown 

I  am  the  brand  of  Cain. 

Joyce  Kilmer. 


GERMANY  IN  TIMES  PAST. 
What  has  become  of  the  Germany  that  all  the  world  loved 
and  respected;  the  Germany  of  Huss  and  Luther,  of  Leibnitz  and 
Kant,  of   Goethe  and   Schiller,   of   Beethoven  and   Mozart;  the 
Germany  of  Andreas  Hofer  and  Kossuth,  of  Carl  Schurz  and 
Franz    Sigel,   of   Heine   and   Wagner?     Where   is  the   old-time 
respect  for  art,  the  old-time  defiance  of  tyrants,  the  former  love 
of  liberty?     I  cannot  believe  that  the  people  who  have  produced 
leaders  in  every  field  of  thought  and  action,  mighty  champions  of 
freedom,  are  so  entirely  changed,  so  basely  degenerated  as  their 
warlord  would  have  us  to  think,  but  only  throttled  and  gagged, 
and  will  ere  long  destroy  the  military  Frankenstein  which  now 
enthralls  them  and  once  more  show  themselves  to  be   freemen 
and  brothers  to  the  rest  of  mankind  in  the  age-long  struggle  for 
liberty,  worthy  descendants  of  the  Germans  who  threw  off  the 
yoke  of  Napoleon  in  1814  and  kinsmen  of  the  revolutionists  of 
1848.     One  lone  voice  has  been  raised  in  protest  in  the  German 
Reichstag,  that  of  a  man  worthy  to  be  president  of  the  United 
States  of  Central  Europe.    I  refer,  of  course,  to  Karl  Liebnecht. 
who,  in  consequence  of  his  courage  and  independence,  now  lan- 
guishes in  a  German  prison. 


"Man  is  not  the  mere  creature  of  the  state.  Man  is  older 
than  nations,  and  he  is  to  survive  nations..  All  nations  are  bound 
to  respect  the  rights  of  every  human  being." — William  Ellery 
Channing. 


167 


DOWNFALL    OF    THE    HOHEXZOLLERXS    AND 

RECONSTRUCTION  OF  EUROPE  FORETOLD  BY 

A  PRUSSL-\N  PHILOSOPHER. 

An  unjust  enemy  is  one  whose  publicly  expressed  will, 
whether  in  word  or  deed,  betrays  a  maxim  which,  if  it  were  taken 
as  a  universal  rule,  would  make  a  state  of  peace  among  the  nations 
impossible. 

Such  is  the  violation  of  public  treaties,  with  regard  to  which 
it  may  be  assumed  that  any  such  violation  concerns  all  nations  by 
threatening  their  freedom,  and  that  they  are  thus  summoned  to 
unite  against  such  a  wrong,  and  to  take  away  the  power  of  com- 
mitting it. 

But  this  does  not  include  the  right  to  partition  and  appropri- 
ate the  country  so  as  to  make  a  State,  as  it  were,  disappear  from 
the  earth,  for  this  would  be  an  injustice  to  the  people  of  that 
State,  who  cannot  lose  their  right  to  unite  into  a  commonwealth 
and  to  adopt  such  a  new  constitution  as  by  its  nature  would  be 
unfavorable  to  the  inclination  for  war. 

[Eternal  Peace,  Page  159.  A\'orld  Peace  Foundation.  Im- 
manuel  Kant.] 

THE  WILL  TO  POWER 

The  ancient  truth  still  runs  its  course. 
If  you  ado])t  the  rule  of  Force 
And  boldly  seek  your  chosen  goal. 
You  risk  vour  own,  vour  all — vour  Soul ! 


Goethe's  Faust,  2d  part,  Act  \'. 


168 


THE  VERDICT  OF  MANKIND 
The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  really  written  in  the 
blood  of  the  patriots  who  fell  at  Lexington.     To  establish  these 
principles  in  the  new  world  our  forefathers  fought  from  1775  to 
1783;  to  establish  the  same  principles  throughout  the  rest  of  the 
world  all  free  peoples  are  fighting  today.     Although  we  are  fight- 
ing the  most  efficient  and  least  scrupulous  tyranny  that  ingenuity 
an'd  persistence   have   ever   devised,  the   result   is   not   in   doubt, 
although  the  struggle  may  be  long.     A  vast  majority  of  mankind 
are  giving  evidence  that  they  prefer  death  and  annihilation  rather 
than^to  submit  to  the  Kaiser.     As  a  slaughterer  of  innocents  he 
has  out-Heroded  Herod ;  as  a  concocter  of  massacres  he  has  out- 
Neroed  Nero ;  for  callousness  of  mind  and  meanness  of  spirit  he 
has  outdone  all  the  sceptered  monsters  of  ancient  and  modern 
times.     He  and  his  ilk  appear  to  be  Anti-Christ  and  the  Beast 
foretold  of  the  prophets  as  the  quintessence  of  evil.     The  world 
despises  this  imperial  vampire  even  more  than  it  fears  him,  but  if 
the  world  is  to  be  made  safe  for  democracy  the  Kaiser  and  his 
brood   must   be   exterminated,   root   and  branch.     The  blood  of 
slaughtered  millions  cries  from  the  earth  which  he  has  defaced. 
Incomparably  more  guilty  than  Charles  I.  of  England  or  Louis 
X\'I.  of  France,  it  is  the  verdict  of  mankind  that  William  II.  of 
Germany  must  expiate  his  crimes  against  mankind. 

The  remedy  for  the  evils  of  democracy  is  more  democracy. 
-De  Tocqueville. 


163 


The  sentence  in  American  history  that  I  am  proudest  of  is  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  where  the  writers  say  that  a  decent  respect 
for  the  opinion  of  mankind  demands  that  they  state  the  reasons  for  what 
they  are  about  to  do. 

WooDROw  Wilson,  June  30,  1916. 

President  Wilson  States  the  Purposes  for  Which  the 
Democratic  Peoples  of  the  World  Are  Fighting  Against 
THE  Autocratic  Governments  of  Central  Europe. 

[Address  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  on  April  2, 
1917,  advising  the  declaration  of  a  state  of  war  against  the  Ger- 
man government.] 

To  fight  for  the  ultimate  peace  of  the  world  and  for  the  lib- 
eration of  its  peoples,  the  German  peoples  included ;  for  the  rights 
of  nations,  great  and  small,  and  the  privilege  of  men  everywhere 
to  choose  their  way  of  life  and  of  obedience. 

The  menace  to  that  peace  and  freedom  lies  in  the  existence 
of  autocratic  governments,  backed  by  organized  force  which  is 
controlled  wholly  by  their  will,  not  by  the  will  of  the  people. 

A  steadfast  concert  for  peace  can  never  be  maintained  except 
by  a  partnership  of  democratic  nations.  No  autocratic  govern- 
ment could  be  trusted  to  keep  faith  within  it  or  observe  its  cove- 
nants. Only  free  peoples  can  hold  their  purpose  and  their  honor 
steady  to  a  common  end  and  prefer  the  interests  of  mankind  to 
any  narrow  interest  of  their  own. 

The  great,  generous  Russian  people  have  been  added,  in  all 
their  native  majesty  and  might,  to  the  forces  that  are  fighting  for 
freedom  in  the  world,  for  justice,  and  for  peace.  Here  is  a  fit 
partner  for  a  League  of  Honor. 

Prussian  autocracy  was  not  and  never  could  be  our  friend. 
Its  spies  were  here  even  before  the  war  began ;  and  it  is  a  fact 
proved  in  our  courts  of  justice  that  intrigues  to  disturb  the  peace 
and  dislocate  the  industries  of  the  country  have  been  carried  on 
under  the  personal  direction  of  official  agents  of  the  Imperial 
Governnment. 

The  world  must  be  made  safe  for  democracy. 

These  zvords  represent  the  faith  ivhich  inspires  and  sustains 
our  people  in  the  tremendous  sacrifices  they  have  made  and  are 
still  making.  They  also  believe  that  the  unity  and  peace  of  man- 
kind can  only  rest  upon  democracy. 

To  all  these  the  Prussian  military  autocracy  is  an  implacable 
foe. 

— Prime  Minister  David  Lloyd-George.  April  6,  1917. 

170 


Head  of  Jefferson  used  on  all  diplomas  issued  by  the 
University  of  Virginia,  of  which  he  was  the  founder. 

TO  THOMAS  JEFFERSON, 
who,  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  proclaimed  the  belief  in 
democracy  for  which  all  the  free  peoples  of  the  earth  are  fight- 
ing today. 

Lincoln  declared  that  all  the  political  sentiments  he  enter- 
tained sprang  from  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  now 
President  Wilson  is  leading  the  American  people  in  a  glorious 
crusade  to  make  all  the  peoples  of  the  world  as  free  as  ourselves 
to  determine  their  own  political  destinies. 

Romanoff  autocracy  is  dead  in  Russia. 

Sic  semper  tyrannis. 

HOHENZOLLERNI  ET   HAPSBVRGI   DELENDI   SVNT. 

"The  world  must  be  made  safe  for  democracy." 

Thy  spirit.  Thomas  Jefiferson,  is  alive  in  the  hearts  of  all 

free  men  todav- 

Those  about  to  die  for  freedom,  salute  thee,  mighty  shade! 

[Inscription  attached  to  a  wreaih  of  laurel  placed  on  the  grave  of  Jefferson  at 
Monticello,  April  24th,  1917.] 


171 


The  Spirit  of  the  American  Revolution 

The  onlv  ])rinciples  of  public  conduct  that  arc  worthy  of  a 
gentleman  and  a  man  are  to  sacrifice  estate,  ease,  health  and 
a])plause,  and  even  life,  to  the  sacred  calls  of  his  country. 

These  manlv  sentiments,  in  private  life,  make  the  good 
citizen  ;  in  public  life,  the  patriot  and  the  hero.  I  do  not  say,  when 
brought  to  the  test,  I  shall  be  invincible.  I  pray  God  I  may 
never  be  brought  to  the  melancholy  trial ;  but  if  ever  T  should, 
it  will  then  be  known  how  I  can  reduce  to  practice  principles 
which  I  know  to  be  founded  in  truth. 

—  James  Otis,  FKr.RrARv.  1761. 

It  was  of  this  address  that  John  Adams  said : 
''Then  and  There,  the  Child,  Independence,  Was  Born" 

I  should  advise  persisting  in  our  struggle  for  liberty,  though 
it  was  revealed  from  Heaven  that  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
were  to  i)erish,  and  only  one  of  a  thousand  to  survive  and  enjoy 
his  liberty.  One  such  freeman  must  possess  more  virtue  and 
enjoy  more  hap])iness  than  a  thousand  slaves;  let  him  i)ropagate 
his  like,  and  transmit  to  them  what  he  hath  so  nobly  preserved. 

Samuel  Adams,  "father  of  the  .liucrican  Revolution,"  from 

a  speech  in  the  Congress  hehi  in  Phihuielphia  in  IJJ  j. 


172 


WHAT  AMERICA  IS  FIGHTING  FOR  TODAY. 
America  is  not  the  name  of  so  much  territory.  It  is  a  hving 
spirit,  born  in  travail  grown  in  the  rough  school  of  bitter  ex- 
perience, a  hving  spirit  which  has  purpose  and  pride  and  con- 
science-knows why  it  wishes  to  hve  and  to  what  end ;  knows 
how  it  comes  to  be  respected  of  the  world  and  hopes  to  retain 
that  respect  bv  living  on  with  the  light  of  Lincoln's  love  of  man 
as  its  Old  and  New  Testament.  IT  IS  MORE  PRECIOUS 
THAT  THIS  AMERICA  SHOULD  LIVE  THAN  THAT 
WE  SHOULD  LIVE. 

The  world  of  Christ— a  neglected  but  not  rejected  Christ- 
has  come  face  to  face  with  the  world  of  Mahomet,  who  willed 

to  win  by  force. 

We 'fight  with  the  world  for  an  honest  world,  in  which 
nations  keep  their  word,  a  world  in  which  nations  do  not  live  by 
swagger  or  by  threat,  for  a  world  in  which  men  think  of  the 
ways  in  which  they  can  conquer  the  common  cruehies  of  Nature 
instead  of  inventing  more  horrible  cruelties  to  inflict  upon  the 
spirit  and  body  of  man,  for  a  world  in  which  the  ambition  of  the 
philosophy  of  a  few  shall  not  make  miserable  all  mankind,  for 
a  world  in  which  the  man  is  held  more  precious  than  the  machine, 
the  system  or  the  State.— Franklin  K.  Lane,  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior, June  4,  I9I7. 


173 


A  Re'United  English  Race  Fights  the  Enemy 

of  Mankind 

AMIDST  THE  BASENESS  AND  HORROR  OF  THE 
GREAT  WAR  IT  IS  INSPIRING  TO  BEHOLD  HOW  HER 
CHILDREN  HAVE  GATHERED  AROUND  OUR  BE- 
LOVED MOTHER  COUNTRY  IN  HER  TIME  OF  TRIAL. 
FOR  THREE  BITTER  YEARS  SHE  HAS  BEEN  AMERI- 
CA'S SHIELD  AGAINST  THE  BARBARIAN  AND  NOW, 
BY  THE  ENTRANCE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  INTO 
THE  CONFLICT,  MOTHER  ENGLAND  IS  AT  LAST  SUP- 
PORTED BY  ALL  HER  OFFSPRING.  IN  THE  SUPREME 
STRUGGLE  ANCIENT  QUARRELS  ARE  FORGOTTEN. 
THE  ENGLISH  RACE  IS  AGAIN  ONE  FAMILY  AND 
PRESENTS  A  UNITED  FRONT  TO  THE  HUN. 

This  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  to  the  Countess  of  Darnley 
written  in  response  to  her  appeal  for  succor  for  the  wounded  Aus- 
tralian officers  to  whom  she  has  lent  half  of  her  historic  home  in 
Kent.  Cobham  Hall  vividly  recalls  "the  spacious  days  of  Queen 
Elizabeth."  There  are  paintings  by  Titian  and  Rubens  and  portraits 
of  the  Stuart  ancestors  of  Lord  Darnley  by  Van  Dyck,  Lely  and 
Kneller.  Gad's  Hill  Place,  the  home  of  Charles  Dickens,  is  near  by, 
and  I  think  the  great  Tudor  mansion  served  as  his  model  for  Chesney 
Wold   in   "Bleak  House." 


174 


Battling  in  the  Air 


AN  ENGLISH   POET'S  VISION  OF  THE  GREAT  WAR 

AND  ITS  ENDING. 

A  PROPHECY  MADE  75  YEARS  AGO. 

For  I  dipt  into  the  future,  far  as  human  eye  could  see, 

Saw  the  Vision  of  the  world,  and  all  the  wonder  that  would  be ; 

Saw  the  heavens  fill  with  commerce,  argosies  of  magic  sails. 

Pilots  of  the  purple  twilight,  dropping  down  with  costly  bales ; 

Heard  the  heavens  fill  with  shouting,  and  there  rained  a  ghastly 
dew 

From  the  nations'  airy  navies  grappling  in  the  central  blue  ; 

Far  along  the  world-wide  whisper  of  the  south-wind  rushing 
warm, 

W'itli  the  standards  of  the  Peoples  plunging  through  the  thunder- 
storm ; 

Till  the  war-drum  throbbed  no  longer,  and  the  battle-fiags  were 
furled 

In  the  Parliament  of  Man,  the  Federation  of  the  World. 

— Tennyson's  Lockslev  Hall,  1842 


175 


The  Seal  of  Connecticut 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 


0315023664 


929.2 


Abl9 


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